More than 100 inmates escape Haiti prison, 2 dead

PORT-AU-PRINCE // Prisons across Haiti were on high alert after at least 172 inmates escaped a jail near the capital Port-au-Prince during an armed mutiny which killed one guard.

More than 100 mostly barefoot inmates overpowered guards on Saturday and escaped from a lockup in central Haiti, officials said.

Judge Henry Claude Louis-Jean said the prison break occurred in Arcahaie, a coastal town about 50 kilometres north of Haiti’s capital.

Le Nouvelliste newspaper quoted Arcahaie prison manager Heurtelou Paul Colson as saying a guard was shot dead and two other police officers were wounded.

The escapees stole an unknown number of weapons and some exchanged gunfire with police during the chaotic breakout.

The inmates attacked after they were released from a crammed holding pen to bathe, according to provincial authorities.

One prisoner climbed over a wall and fell to his death, while two other detainees were wounded and hospitalised.

The prison manager told Le Nouvelliste that an inmate Yvener Carelus, who was serving time for kidnapping, was the mastermind behind the escape. He has been arrested.

“He planned the escape from the inside with a few accomplices,” justice minister Camille Edouard Junior said, adding that security was being boosted at prisons across the country.

Human rights activist Pierre Esperance noted that the prison had housed “a lot of big-name prisoners, major criminals sentenced for theft, rape, kidnapping, drug trafficking”.

Authorities have launched a manhunt for the escapees, with police checking all roads in the Arcadins coastal zone near Arcahaie prison.

“The government strongly condemns the incidents that took place at Arcahaie prison, targeted in a mutiny by heavily armed individuals,” according to the office of interim prime minister Enex Jean-Charles, who also serves as defence minister.

“Special police units are on site to secure the area and prevent those responsible from causing further harm.”

The foreign, justice and interior ministers, along with top national police officials, visited the prison after the violence.

Mr Jean-Charles asked the justice minister to “take all necessary measures to remedy this unacceptable situation”, his office said.

* Agence France-Presse and Associated Press