![[Img #73861]](https://thelatestnews.world/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Dark-matter-near-Mars-150x150.jpg)
First modification:
The riots in the Gonaïves civil prison on Thursday, January 26, left some twenty prisoners dead, while as many others fled. Human rights organizations put the number of fatalities at 27, while the authorities put it at 14. In front of the prison, housed in a former UN mission warehouse, dozens of desperate citizens came to find out if their relatives were alive.
With our correspondent in Port-au-Prince, Ronel Paul
After the riot in the civil prison, a compact crowd observes a corpse lying on the ground near the main entrance.
A little further on, you can see another body with its face already eaten by the dogs. Clinging to the prison fence, this mother can’t hold back her tears.
“My son is 16 years old. He was arrested during looting in Gonaïves. I have come to verify it, I have heard that many prisoners have died, I do not know if my son is among them, ”he says, his voice breaking with tears.
With a banner around her waist, this other mother is stunned. She comes from Marmelade, 52 km from Gonaïves. Her 17-year-old son has been in prison for three months and she fears that she is one of the victims.
“My son is Luckson Pierre. He was in cell number 1. He had fought at Puilboreau, then he was transferred here. I can’t take it anymore… ”, she says in shock.
Tablet in hand, human rights defender Jean Rony Lima gathers information. According to him, this leak was foreseeable.
“When you have 560 detainees in four cells, with only two or three policemen accompanied by a few agents from the public order unit who have not received training for it, at a time when the national police are in rebellion against the State Haitian, what is happening today is not a coincidence”, he assures R.F.I..
At the time of the escape, 17 women incarcerated in the prison were raped. Among them was a woman who had just given birth and a minor.
The poorest nation in the Americas is suffering from a growing political and economic crisis, sparked in part by the assassination of President Jovenel Moise in July 2021.
