Hundreds of inmates flee after armed gangs storm Haiti’s main prison, leaving bodies behind

Hundreds of inmates flee after armed gangs storm Haiti’s main prison, leaving bodies behind
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An inmate helps another prisoner inside the National Penitentiary in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on March 3, 2024, after an overnight attack by armed gangs. (AP)
Hundreds of inmates flee after armed gangs storm Haiti’s main prison, leaving bodies behind
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Hundreds of inmates flee after armed gangs storm Haiti’s main prison, leaving bodies behind
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Police officers battle gangsters trying to take control of Haiti on March 1, 2024. (REUTERS)
Hundreds of inmates flee after armed gangs storm Haiti’s main prison, leaving bodies behind
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An inmate helps another prisoner inside the National Penitentiary in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on March 3, 2024, after an overnight attack by armed gangs. (AP)
Hundreds of inmates flee after armed gangs storm Haiti’s main prison, leaving bodies behind
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A view shows vehicles damaged by fire during a protest in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on March 1, 2024, against Prime Minister Ariel Henry's government and insecurity. (REUTERS)
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Updated 04 March 2024
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Hundreds of inmates flee after armed gangs storm Haiti’s main prison, leaving bodies behind

Hundreds of inmates flee after armed gangs storm Haiti’s main prison, leaving bodies behind
  • Armed gangs attacked the prison facility on Saturday while Haiti's PM is abroad trying to salvage support for a United Nations-backed security force to stabilize the troubled Carribean country

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti: Hundreds of inmates fled Haiti’s main prison after armed gangs stormed the facility in an overnight explosion of violence that engulfed much of the capital. At least five people were dead Sunday.

The jailbreak marked a new low in Haiti’s downward spiral of violence and came as gangs step up coordinated attacks in Port-au-Prince, while embattled Prime Minister Ariel Henry is abroad trying to salvage support for a United Nations-backed security force to stabilize the country.




Haiti's Prime Minister Ariel Henry gives a public lecture at the United States International University (USIU) in Nairobi, Kenya, on March. 1, 2024, amid gang violence in his troubled Caribbean country. (AP)

Three bodies with gunshot wounds lay at the prison entrance, which was wide open, with no guards in sight. Plastic sandals, clothing and electric fans were strewn across normally overcrowded concrete patios that were eerily empty on Sunday. In another neighborhood, the bloodied corpses of two men with their hands tied behind their backs laid face down as residents walked past roadblocks set up with burning tires.
Haiti’s government urged calm as it sought to find the killers, kidnappers and perpetrators of other violent crimes that it said escaped during the outbreak of violence.
“The National Police is taking all measures to find the escaped prisoners and arrest those responsible for these criminal acts as well as all their accomplices so that public order can be restored,” the Communications Ministry said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
Arnel Remy, a human rights attorney whose nonprofit works inside the prison, said on X that fewer than 100 of the nearly 4,000 inmates remained behind bars. Those choosing to stay included 18 former Colombian soldiers accused of working as mercenaries in the July 2021 assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse. On Saturday night, several of the Colombians shared a video pleading for their lives.
“Please, please help us,” one of the men, Francisco Uribe, said in the message widely shared on social media. “They are massacring people indiscriminately inside the cells.”
On Sunday, Uribe told journalists who walked breezily into the normally highly guarded facility “I didn’t flee because I’m innocent.”




Colombian inmates accused in the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moise talk to journalists inside the National Penitentiary in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on March 3, 2024. (AP)

In the absence of official information, inmates’ family members rushed to the prison to check on loved ones.
“I don’t know whether my son is alive or not,” said Alexandre Jean as she roamed around the cells looking for any sign of him. “I don’t know what to do.”
The violence Saturday night appeared to be widespread, with several neighborhoods reporting gunfire.
There were reports of a jailbreak at a second Port-au-Prince prison containing around 1,400 inmates. Armed gangs also occupied and vandalized the nation’s top soccer stadium, taking one employee hostage for hours, the nation’s soccer federation said in a statement. Internet service for many residents was down as Haiti’s top mobile network said a fiber optic cable connection was slashed during the rampage.
In the space of less than two weeks, several state institutions have been attacked by the gangs, who are increasingly coordinating their actions and choosing once unthinkable targets like the Central Bank. After gangs opened fire at Haiti’s international airport last week, the US Embassy said it was temporarily halting all official travel to the country. As part of coordinated attacks by gangs, four police officers were killed Thursday.




Police officers battle gangsters trying to take control of Haiti on March 1, 2024. (REUTERS)

The epicenter of the latest violence Saturday night was Haiti’s National Penitentiary, which is holding several gang leaders. Amid the exchange of gunfire, police appealed for assistance.
“They need help,” a union representing police said in a message on social media bearing an “SOS” emoji repeated eight times. “Let’s mobilize the army and the police to prevent the bandits from breaking into the prison.”
The clashes follow violent protests that turned deadlier in recent days as the prime minister went to Kenya to try and salvage a proposed UN-backed security mission in Haiti to be led by the East African country. Henry took over as prime minister following Moise’s assassination and has repeatedly postponed plans to hold parliamentary and presidential elections, which haven’t happened in almost a decade.
Haiti’s National Police has roughly 9,000 officers to provide security for more than 11 million people, according to the UN. They are routinely overwhelmed and outgunned by gangs, which are estimated to control up to 80 percent of Port-au-Prince.
Jimmy Chérizier, a former elite police officer known as Barbecue who now runs a gang federation, has claimed responsibility for the surge in attacks. He said the goal was to capture Haiti’s police chief and government ministers and prevent Henry’s return.
The prime minister, a neurosurgeon, has shrugged off calls for his resignation and didn’t comment when asked if he felt it was safe to come home.
 


4 people including army officer kidnapped in northwest Pakistan

Pakistani security personnel stand guard in the Hayatabad area of Peshawar, Pakistan. (File/AFP)
Pakistani security personnel stand guard in the Hayatabad area of Peshawar, Pakistan. (File/AFP)
Updated 56 min 47 sec ago
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4 people including army officer kidnapped in northwest Pakistan

Pakistani security personnel stand guard in the Hayatabad area of Peshawar, Pakistan. (File/AFP)
  • Local authorities said a video of Khan, showing him in the custody of the Pakistani Taliban, was sent anonymously to his family
  • In the video, Khan is seen sitting in front of armed men and urging the government to accept the demands of the Pakistani Taliban

DERA ISMAIL KHAN: Suspected militants kidnapped four people, including an army officer who was sitting in a mosque in a former stronghold of the Pakistani Taliban to receive mourners after attending his father’s funeral, officials said Thursday.
No one claimed responsibility for Wednesday’s kidnapping of Lt. Col. Khalid Khan and three others in Dera Ismail Khan, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in northwest Pakistan.
Local authorities said a video of Khan, showing him in the custody of the Pakistani Taliban, was sent anonymously to his family. In the video, Khan is seen sitting in front of armed men and urging the government to accept the demands of the Pakistani Taliban. It was unclear what were their demands.
There was no immediate comment by the military or the government.
A local police official, Ikram Ullah, said efforts were underway to trace and recover the abducted persons: Khan, his two brothers who are also government officers, and one of his nephews.
Though the Pakistani Taliban often targets security forces in the northwest, such kidnappings are rare.
The group, known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan or TTP, have a strong presence in the restive northwest. It is separate from the Afghan Taliban but allied to it, and it has been emboldened since the Afghan Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in 2021.
The kidnappings came days after Baloch separatists, who are allies of TTP, shot and killed more than 50 people, including 14 security forces, in one of the deadliest attacks in the southwestern Balochistan province.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif traveled to Quetta, the capital of Balochistan, on Thursday where he received a briefing about ongoing operations against insurgents, officials said.
Later, Sharif vowed to eliminate terrorism in televised remarks, saying those “terrorists” who orchestrated the recent attacks in Balochistan are enemies of Pakistan and would be dealt with an iron hand.


Putin to visit ICC member Mongolia

Putin to visit ICC member Mongolia
Updated 29 August 2024
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Putin to visit ICC member Mongolia

Putin to visit ICC member Mongolia
  • Kremlin said Putin will travel to neighboring Mongolia on Sept. 3 to mark the ‘85th anniversary of the joint victory of Soviet and Mongolian forces over Japan on the Khalkhin Gol River’
  • Putin has reduced his foreign travel since launching a full-scale offensive against Ukraine in Feb. 2022 and limited it even more since the ICC issued the arrest warrant

MOSCOW: Russian President Vladimir Putin will next week visit Mongolia, a member of the International Criminal Court (ICC) that has issued an arrest warrant for the Russian leader, the Kremlin said Thursday.
It will be the first time Putin has traveled to a country that has ratified the founding treaty of the ICC, the Rome Statute, since the Hague-based court issued the warrant for him in March 2023 over the illegal deportation of Ukrainian children.
ICC members are expected to make the arrest if the Russian leader sets foot on their territory.
Mongolia signed the Rome Statute treaty in 2000 and ratified it in 2002.
The Kremlin said Putin will travel to neighboring Mongolia on September 3 to mark the “85th anniversary of the joint victory of Soviet and Mongolian forces over Japanese militarists on the Khalkhin Gol River.”
The battle took place in 1939 during the Japanese occupation of nearby Manchuria.
The Kremlin said Putin and Mongolian President Ukhnaa Khurelsukh will discuss bilateral relations and “exchange views on current international and regional issues.”
The visit will fall a month after US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken visited Mongolia as Washington seeks closer ties with the landlocked country.
The Kremlin has called the ICC warrant “absurd.”
Putin has reduced his foreign travel since launching a full-scale offensive against Ukraine in February 2022 and limited it even more since the ICC issued the arrest warrant.


Indonesia, Australia bolster defense ties with ‘historic’ cooperation agreement

Indonesia, Australia bolster defense ties with ‘historic’ cooperation agreement
Updated 29 August 2024
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Indonesia, Australia bolster defense ties with ‘historic’ cooperation agreement

Indonesia, Australia bolster defense ties with ‘historic’ cooperation agreement
  • Under new pact, Indonesian and Australian militaries can operate from each other’s countries
  • Indonesia and Australia to hold their largest-ever bilateral military drills in November

Jakarta: Indonesia and Australia signed a defense agreement on Thursday, cementing closer ties as Prabowo Subianto prepares to take office as Indonesia’s next president in October.

Subianto, who is serving as defense minister under outgoing President Joko Widodo’s administration, signed the Defense Cooperation Agreement with Australian Defense Minister Richard Marles at Indonesia’s National Military Academy in Magelang, Central Java.

The new pact includes provisions allowing Australian and Indonesian defense forces to operate from each other’s countries.

“We have signed this defense cooperation agreement, which is a historic milestone … to increase our cooperation and help each other address various security threats and promote peace and continued stability in the Asia-Pacific region,” Subianto said during a joint press conference.

“This is not a military alliance, but a defense cooperation. This signifies how we want to continue and preserve our strong ties and good friendship. I am determined to make Indonesia-Australia relations even better in the future.”

The signing took place just a little over a week after Subianto’s visit to Canberra, where he and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced the conclusion of negotiations to upgrade their cooperation arrangement to a treaty-level agreement.

In 2022, Indonesia was Albanese’s first visit as prime minister. He vowed to strengthen ties with Jakarta and other Southeast Asian nations in the face of growing tensions with China in the Indo-Pacific region.

Subianto has said he will continue Indonesia’s longstanding policy of non-alignment when he takes office.

Relations between the neighboring countries were “as close as they had ever been” during Widodo’s presidency, Marles said, adding that Australia understood Indonesia’s non-alignment policy.

“It is very much in Australia’s interest to have a non-aligned Indonesia as our closest neighbor,” he said.

“The defense cooperation agreement between our two nations is the deepest, the most significant defense agreement in the history of our bilateral relationship … this is an important piece of international architecture.”

The two countries plan to hold their largest-ever bilateral military exercise in November, he said.

“In Mr. Prabowo, Australia sees a great friend and we really appreciate the work that you’ve done as the minister of defense, and obviously we look forward to your impending presidency.”


Bangladesh’s new leadership seeks continued cooperation with Saudi Arabia

Bangladesh’s new leadership seeks continued cooperation with Saudi Arabia
Updated 29 August 2024
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Bangladesh’s new leadership seeks continued cooperation with Saudi Arabia

Bangladesh’s new leadership seeks continued cooperation with Saudi Arabia
  • Muhammad Yunus says Kingdom is a ‘very important friend’ of Bangladesh
  • Saudi ambassador sees investment opportunities in renewable energy, logistics

DHAKA: Bangladesh’s new leadership seeks continued cooperation with Saudi Arabia, the head of its interim government Prof. Muhammad Yunus said after his first meeting with the Kingdom’s envoy to Dhaka.

Muhammad Yunus, an 84-year-old economics professor and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, took charge of Bangladesh on Aug. 8, after the longtime Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina quit and fled the country amid violent protests calling for her ouster.

Soon after the appointment, Yunus’ technocrat cabinet manned by renowned lawyers and economists announced a series of judiciary, civil administration, security and economic reforms to restore the country’s macro-economic stability.

Yunus began to interact with foreign envoys in person this week.

After he met with Saudi Ambassador Essa Al-Duhailan, he said in a statement that Saudi Arabia was a “very important friend of Bangladesh” and that his government was “looking forward to continued cooperation” with the Kingdom.

“Bangladesh is also a good friend for Saudi Arabia. We have mutual understanding on many issues, like climate change and also in areas of investment, manpower,” Al-Duhailan told Arab News on Wednesday evening.

“It’s a new area, a new destination, for Saudi investment. And we are willing to invest here in Bangladesh in renewable energy and also in the logistics.”

The ambassador said that Saudi Arabia enjoyed “excellent relations” with Bangladesh both on the official and the people-to-people level and that he had a very “fruitful” meeting with Yunus.

“His excellency focused on how to extend help to Bangladesh, especially at this crucial junction, and also on energy support,” Al-Duhailan said.

“I asked his excellency to accelerate the procedures and waive all the obstacles in front of Saudi investments and also to attract Saudi capital because I believe that Bangladesh is a green field for investors in general and for Saudi investors in particular.”

Some 3 million Bangladeshis live and work in Saudi Arabia. They are the largest expat group in the Kingdom and also the biggest Bangladeshi community outside Bangladesh.

Official and business exchanges between the countries have been on the rise since March last year when a delegation led by Saudi Commerce Minister Majid bin Abdullah Al-Qasabi visited Dhaka.

With several investment agreements signed during the visit, Saudi Arabia entered Bangladesh’s energy, seaport and agriculture industries, while the two nations’ chambers of commerce established the Saudi-Bangladesh Business Council to navigate bilateral commerce ties.


UK seeks to speed up migrant returns

Migrants picked up at sea attempting to cross the English Channel from France are escorted ashore after disembarking.
Migrants picked up at sea attempting to cross the English Channel from France are escorted ashore after disembarking.
Updated 29 August 2024
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UK seeks to speed up migrant returns

Migrants picked up at sea attempting to cross the English Channel from France are escorted ashore after disembarking.
  • Advert says the ministry is seeking “to identify appropriate reintegration delivery providers” to help migrants return from the UK to 11 different countries
  • Countries are Albania, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Ghana, India, Iraq, Jamaica, Nigeria, Pakistan, Vietnam and Zimbabwe

LONDON: Britain’s Labour government is planning “a major surge” in returns of irregular migrants to countries including Iraq, an official said Thursday, as it tries to clear an asylum backlog.
The interior ministry has posted a contract seeking commercial partners to support the “reintegration” of people with no right to live in the UK in their home countries.
The contract, worth £15 million ($19.7 million) over three years, was published last week and first reported by the Financial Times on Thursday.
The advert says the ministry is seeking “to identify appropriate reintegration delivery providers” to help migrants return from the UK to 11 different countries.
The countries are Albania, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Ghana, India, Iraq, Jamaica, Nigeria, Pakistan, Vietnam and Zimbabwe.
Contractors will help with provision of food packs, assist the tracing of family members and provide support with accessing job markets among other things, according to the bid notice.
Interior minister Yvette Cooper announced last week that the government aims over the next six months to achieve the highest rate of deportations of failed asylum seekers in five years.
The goal is to remove more than 14,000 people by the end of the year, according to UK media reports.
“The government is planning to deliver a major surge in immigration enforcement and returns activity to remove people with no right to be in the UK and ensure the rules are respected and enforced,” a ministry spokesperson said in a statement.
“Continued international cooperation with partner nations plays a critical role in this, and we will be working closely with a number of countries across the globe as part of the mission to end irregular migration.”
Prime Minister Keir Starmer, elected to office early last month, has also pledged to “smash the gangs” of people smugglers bringing irregular migrants to Britain on small boats sailing across the Channel.
More than 20,000 migrants have arrived in the UK after crossing from France on rudimentary vessels so far this year, according to the latest figures.
That is marginally up on last year’s data for the same period, but down on 2022.
Refugee charities have urged the government to create more safe routes to deter people from making the perilous journey.
Official figures released last week showed that almost 119,000 people were waiting for a decision on their asylum application at the end of June 2024.