HAITI is in a state of emergency after a deadly gang assault on the capital's main prison saw nearly 4,000 inmates freed.
The capital of Port-au-Prince, dubbed the "world's most dangerous city", has descended into civil war following days of gang-led attacks, leaving dozens killed in the carnage.
Over 200 merciless armed gangs rule over up to 80 per cent of Haiti's capital inflicting terror, sexual violence, torture and lawlessness.
For over two years, warring factions have torn the city apart and turned every day into a fight for survival.
Haiti is listed as one of the world's most dangerous countries, while its capital teeters near the top in terms of deadliest cities as its homicide rate skyrockets.
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But the attack on the National Penitentiary on Saturday night was a big shock to Haitians, who are painfully used to living in a warzone.
Dozens have been killed since Thursday - four of them police officers - as gangs stepped up coordinated attacks on state institutions, including the country's international airport and the national soccer stadium.
A 72-hour state of emergency began Sunday night as the government vowed to find the killers, kidnappers and other violent criminals that escaped en masse from jail.
Haiti's government said security forces had "received orders to use all legal means at their disposal to enforce the curfew and detain those who violate it."
The emergency decree was issued after what authorities called the "massacre" over the weekend that marked a new low in the crisis-wreaked Caribbean nation's downward spiral of violence.
Jimmy Chérizier, a former elite police officer known as Barbecue, has claimed responsibility for the surge in attacks.
The cop-turned-warlord is rumoured to have earned his nickname for setting his victims on fire and has led massacres inside the poorest areas of the city.
He is calling for coordinated attacks to remove Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who is currently abroad, and also capture Haiti's police chief.
"All of us, the armed groups in the provincial towns and the armed groups in the capital, are united," said Barbecue.
Henry has shrugged off calls for him to resign - despite repeatedly postponing elections - and didn't comment when asked if he felt it was safe to come home.
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He had travelled to Nairobi on Thursday to discuss the UN sending a Kenya-led multinational security force to help Haiti, kicking off the upsurge in violence.
Almost all of the estimated 4,000 inmates escaped from Haiti's largest prison, leaving the normally overcrowded jail eerily empty Sunday with no guards in sight.
Among those detained were gang members charged in connection with the 2021 killing of President Jovenel Moïse.
Three bodies with gunshot wounds lay at the prison entrance.
In another neighbourhood, the bloodied corpses of two men with their hands tied behind the backs lay face down as residents walked past roadblocks set up with burning tires.
A second prison in the disaster-struck capital containing around 1,400 inmates was also overrun on Sunday, while the nation's main soccer stadium was taken over.
Internet service for many residents was down as the city's main fibre optic cable connection was slashed during the rampage.
Haiti's National Police has barely 9,000 “overstretched, under-equipped and outnumbered” officers to provide security for more than 11 million people, according to the U.N.
They are routinely overwhelmed and outgunned by the powerful gangs.
In the grips of gangs
Haiti, the Western hemisphere's poorest nation, has been in turmoil for years.
The crisis-ridden country was plunged into further chaos due to the assassination of President Jovenal Moïse in July 2021.
No elections have taken place since 2016 and the presidency remains vacant.
With no functioning government, a power vacuum has trailed in its wake – ready to be exploited by gangs.
Acting PM Ariel Henry was due to stand down on February 7, however planned elections were not held and he has remained in post.
In response, riots have been constant and gangs have been ramping up increasingly coordinated attacks on bolder targets.
Last year, the UN said more than 8,400 people were victims of gang violence last year, which included killings, kidnappings, sexual violence double the numbers seen in 2022.
Their violence and power has been multiplied by the gangs organising themselves into fierce territorial coalitions, the largest of which are the G-9 and G-Pèp.
Renata Segura, International Crisis Group’s deputy director for Latin America and the Caribbean, previously told The Sun Online: “There is a big question mark about what's going to happen when you leave your house every morning.”
It’s a city, she said, where ordinary people are used as “human shields”, murdered, extorted, their businesses looted, their homes burned.
“Children could be hit by a stray bullet when they're on their way to school."
After gangs opened fire at Haiti's international airport last week, the US Embassy said it was halting all official travel to the country and on Sunday night urged all American citizens to depart as soon as possible.
The Biden administration said it was monitoring the rapidly deteriorating security situation with grave concern.
