The government of Haiti declared a state of emergency late on Sunday after a local street gang declared an open insurrection against the government, with gunmen overrunning two of the island nation’s largest prisons and releasing nearly 4,000 inmates onto the streets.
The Haitian government’s emergency declaration includes a 72-hour curfew, requiring all citizens to clear the streets from 6:00 p.m. to 5:00 a.m. Only law enforcement and first responders will be allowed outside during these hours between Monday and Wednesday, and police will use “all legal means at their disposal to enforce the curfew and apprehend all offenders”—despite not having had control over the capital of Port-au-Prince for months.
Meanwhile, the man behind the uprising, former police officer turned gang leader Jimmy “Barbecue” Cherizier, is pledging to escalate the violence until Prime Minister Ariel Henry has been ousted from office. Cherizier rose to power in the Haitian capital’s criminal underworld alongside dozens of other crime bosses in the wake of President Jovenel Moise’s assassination in July 2021 by a group of foreign hitmen.
According to the Associated Press, gangs already control more than 80 percent of Port-au-Prince and have become increasingly coordinated in their efforts to overthrow the government. Cherizier has claimed responsibility for much of the escalating violence, earning him and his gang sanctions from the United States and United Nations.
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“The battle will last as long as it needs to. We will keep fighting Ariel Henry,” Cherizier said in a press conference with Haitian media sources, warning the public to “avoid collateral damage and keep the kids at home.”
“Today, I declare that the hunt for ministers and the Director General of the [Haitian National Police], Frantz Elbé, is open,” Cherizier continued. “We must stop them and send them to join Ariel Henry where he is so that he never returns to the country.”
Le redoutable chef de gang Jimmy Cherizier alias Barbecue et sa bande demandent à l’instant aux parents de la zone métropolitaine du pays de garder leurs enfants à la maison jusqu’à nouvel ordre. L’ancien policier annonce que la bataille visant à déloger Ariel Henry de la… pic.twitter.com/pycevQ7a0Z
— Windy Phele (@windyphele) March 1, 2024
Prime Minister Henry is currently abroad seeking help to restore order in his home country. On Saturday, he reached an agreement with UN representatives to allow an armed task force of 1,000 Kenyan “police officers” to accompany him to Haiti to subdue the hostile gang members. Haiti’s current police force consists of just 9,000 men policing a population of over 11 million.
Facing the prospect of the embattled prime minister returning with a foreign army, Cherizier is calling for every gang in Haiti to rise up and join the conflict. “The Haitian people must be liberated. We will do it with our weapons,” he said. “All the armed groups in the country, in the provinces and in Port-au-Prince, are more united than ever. We, the armed men, have decided to take the future into our own hands.”
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In the latest escalation, gang gunmen attacked multiple police stations as a diversion, then launched a coordinated assault on the National Penitentiary in Port-au-Prince and another prison in nearby Croix des Bouquet. The penitentiary, built to house 700 prisoners, had a population of 3,687 as of last month.
Between the two prisons, more than 4,000 inmates—including several implicated in connection with the Moise assassination—were turned loose in a campaign to overwhelm government forces and create general chaos. At least four police officers and multiple prisoners were killed, and news footage shows bloodied corpses littering the streets near the facilities.
The Haitian government hopes to use the 72-hour curfew to round up escaped offenders but has yet to put forward a concrete plan. The US Embassy in Haiti issued a security alert urging all Americans to evacuate the country “as soon as possible.”
Connor Walcott is a staff writer for Valuetainment.com. Follow Connor on X and look for him on VT’s “The Unusual Suspects.”
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