(Port-Au-Prince) Inmates escaped from a prison in the coastal city of Saint-Marc in central Haiti on Friday, police said, as authorities across the country struggle to quell widespread gang violence.
Eleven inmates who allegedly escaped were killed in gunfire with police and one was arrested, said Michel Ange Louis Jeune, spokesman for Haiti’s national police.
He did not provide further details, and it is not known how many inmates escaped.
The newspaper The New List said prison officers were on strike to demand better treatment, and quoted government commissioner Vension Francois as saying he feared a “mutiny,” suggesting guards may have been complicit in the prison break. But the article did not elaborate.
Local officials could not immediately be reached for comment. In a brief statement, police asked for the public’s help in identifying the escaped inmates.
Gunshots were heard near the prison, and videos posted on social media showed smoke and fire billowing from it. It was not immediately clear how many inmates the prison housed.
This is the third prison escape this year in Haiti.
In March, gangs freed thousands of inmates after storming the country’s two largest prisons in the capital, Port-au-Prince, in coordinated attacks that led to the resignation of Prime Minister Ariel Henry.
An inmate accused of escaping earlier this year was arrested along with 14 others, including three police officers, in a separate anti-crime operation on Thursday, Michel Ange Louis Jeune said.
Saint-Marc, located north of the capital, has already faced prisoner escapes in the past. In December 2014, nearly 30 inmates escaped after sawing through steel bars, authorities said. At the time, the prison held nearly 500 inmates.
Haitian prisons are severely overcrowded, and pretrial detentions can stretch for years, given the country’s flawed justice system. Last year, only 1,892 of the country’s 11,816 inmates were convicted of a crime, according to the United Nations.
There is also a chronic lack of water and food in Haiti’s prisons. 185 inmates died last year, many from malnutrition-related illnesses.