Thousands of prisoners fled Haiti’s National Penitentiary, located in the capital, during a Saturday night gunbattle between national police and armed gangs, an official told VOA.
Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry is currently overseas. He traveled last week to Kenya, where he signed a bilateral accord to authorize 1,000 Kenyan police officers who will lead a multinational security force. The United Nations authorized the force to help Haiti combat gang violence and reestablish security.
It was unclear where the prime minister was Sunday. Kenyan President William Ruto’s office did not respond to a request by VOA for information on Henry’s whereabouts.
The Henry government has not officially commented on what is happening in Haiti.
The U.S. Embassy in Haiti has not yet publicly commented on the weekend violence.
VOA journalists who went Sunday to the penitentiary in downtown Port-au-Prince saw bodies inside and outside the building.
An engineer, who wished to remain anonymous because he was not authorized to speak on behalf of law enforcement officials, said he was working with the national police to survey the situation Sunday morning.
The engineer said 99 prisoners remained inside the jail. He said the penitentiary previously held close to 4,000 prisoners. He said he was not prepared to give an estimate of how many prisoners died during the jailbreak.
