Police say 11 inmates killed in shootouts following breakout from prison in central Haiti

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PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Inmates broke out of a prison in the coastal town of Saint-Marc in central Haiti on Friday, police said, as authorities in the country struggle to quell widespread gang violence.

Eleven suspected escaped inmates were killed in shootouts with police and one was arrested, said Michel Ange Louis Jeune, spokesman for Haiti’s National Police.

He did not provide further details, including how many inmates escaped.

The newspaper Le Nouvelliste said officers at the prison went on strike to demand better treatment, and it quoted government commissioner Vension François as saying he feared a “mutiny,” suggesting guards may have been complicit in the prison break. But the report did not elaborate.

Local officials could not be immediately reached. In a brief statement, police asked for help from the public in identifying escaped inmates.

Gunfire was heard near the prison, and videos posted on social media showed smoke and fire billowing from it. It wasn’t immediately clear how many inmates the prison held.

It is the third prison break this year in Haiti. In March, gangs freed thousands of inmates after storming the country’s two biggest prisons in the capital of Port-au-Prince as part of coordinated attacks that led to the eventual resignation of Prime Minister Ariel Henry.

One inmate accused of escaping earlier this year was arrested along with 14 other people, including three police officers, in a separate anti-crime operation Thursday, Jeune said.

Saint-Marc, located north of the capital, has struggled with escaped inmates in the past. In December 2014, nearly three dozen inmates escaped after sawing through steel bars, authorities said. At the time, the prison held nearly 500 inmates.

Haitian prisons are severely overcrowded, and pre-trial detentions can stretch out for years, given the country’s broken judicial system. Last year, only 1,892 of a total of 11,816 inmates in the country had been convicted of a crime, according to the United Nations.

There is also a chronic lack of water and food in prisons across Haiti, with 185 inmates dying last year, many from malnutrition-related diseases.

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