Members of the powerful Haitian gang coalition Viv Ansanm stormed a prison in central Haiti on March 31, releasing over 500 inmates and setting fire to a nearby police substation.
The gangs attacked Mirebalais, a rural town near Haiti’s border with the Dominican Republic that has served as a haven for those escaping violence in Port-au-Prince, AP reports. Haiti National Police spokesman Lionel Lazarre confirmed the assault that sent residents fleeing through the streets with belongings balanced on their heads and hospital staff went into hiding.
“They burned part of the police station and several disabled cars in the police station yard,” Lazerre told The Miami Herald. “All of the prisoners left.”
Frédérique Occéan, the presidential appointee for the region, attributed the attack to ongoing efforts to curb illegal arms trafficking across the border. He noted that tensions escalated following a March 30 police operation in the border town of Belladère, which resulted in several arrests.
“After those arrests, after the weapons were seized, after the vehicles that were confiscated…the threats grew,” Occéan said. “The guys today went to the prison and broke the prison and freed everyone.”
Occéan said local leaders had been requesting armored vehicles for weeks to bolster security forces in the city.
“Up until now, we have not yet received any armored vehicles,” he said. “ We have a lot of political will to fight, but we need the means to fight.”
Mirebalais is one of several cities in Haiti’s Central Plateau that has become a refuge for people escaping the violence in Port-au-Prince, where over 1 million have been displaced—60,000 in the last month alone. Located near the Haiti-Dominican border, the city sits along a key route for illegal arms trafficking, serving as a pipeline for gangs to obtain high-powered weapons and ammunition.
The attack on the Mirebalais prison echoes last year’s assaults on two of Haiti’s largest facilities—the National Penitentiary in the capital and the nearby Croix-des-Bouquets Civil Prison—where criminal groups stormed the compounds and freed more than 4,000 inmates, including gang members.
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