This screen grab taken from AFPTV shows tires on fire near the main prison of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on March 3, 2024, after a breakout by several thousand inmates.
A 72-hour state of emergency has been declared in Haiti after armed gangs stormed two of the country's largest prisons, reportedly allowing thousands of people to escape.
A government statement said two prisons, one in the capital of Port-au-Prince and another in nearby Croix des Bouquets, were overrun by gang members over the weekend, according to multiple media reports.
Nearly all the 4,000 inmates at Haiti's National Penitentiary in Port-au-Prince were thought to have escaped.
Haitian lawyer Arnel Remy, head of the Collective of Lawyers for the Defense of Human Rights in Haiti, said in a Google-translated update on the X social media platform that a total of 3,597 prisoners escaped from the National Penitentiary.
Persons:
Patrick Boisvert, Al, Ariel Henry, Arnel Remy
Organizations:
CNBC, Finance, Lawyers, Defense of Human Rights, National Penitentiary
Locations:
Port, Prince, Haiti, Croix des, Haiti's, Al Jazeera, Boisvert, Haitian, Kenya