Riots In Haiti Prison, 12 Convicts Died

UNSPLASH/Guido ILLUSTRATION Coppa

JAKARTA - The riots in prison in the city of Saint-Marc, Haiti, left 12 inmates dead. This incident is Haiti's third incident in recent months amid a prolonged humanitarian crisis by criminal gang violence.

Prosecutor Venson Francois said the situation on Friday, August 16 afternoon, was under control in a prison that houses about 540 inmates.

However, local residents must remain vigilant and supervise the people who fled.

"The situation is under control but the result is very bad. All police dormitories have been burned. The archives have been burned. They have burned everything except their cells," Francois said.

Circulating videos on unverified social media, showing inmates climbing walls and smoke billowing from walls surrounded by barbed wire, loud explosions heard accompanied by fires.

Walter Montas, a local government official, said the unrest developed from spontaneous protests when prisoners lived without food and faced dire health conditions.

Regarding the condition of Haiti, so far, only 400 of the 1,000 police personnel promised by Kenya have arrived. Other countries that have promised apparatus personnel to support Haiti's resource-deficient police have not yet been sent.

With so many cells filled to nearly quadruple its capacity, the United Nations says poor conditions and lack of need have resulted in the death of at least 109 inmates so far this year.