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Haiti: Police officers stand in front of the empty national prison in Port-au-Prince.
Hundreds of inmates fled.
Photo: Odelyn Joseph/dpa
The USA has announced that it will fly out the citizens stranded in Haiti on a charter flight.
The US State Department announced this on Saturday.
The situation in Haiti is becoming increasingly dangerous following the resignation of Prime Minister Ariel Henry.
At the end of January, Henry visited Guyana and Kenya to sign an agreement on the use of international security forces to curb violence in his country.
His resignation last week was forced by heavily armed gangs led by Jimmy Cherizier (also known as "Barbeque"), who are spreading violence across Haiti.
Haiti in chaos
As local media and news agencies reported, conflicts between police and criminal gangs escalated in the Delmas district of the capital Port-au-Prince on Friday.
The area is Jimmy Cherizier's stronghold.
On Saturday, police spokesman Lionel Lazarre said several "bandits" had been killed in the operation.
The police units entered the area on Friday evening.
In another statement, police said they shot at members of Cherizier's gang, cleared several roadblocks and confiscated weapons.
The BBC reported another operation on Saturday;
Police tried to regain control of the capital's main seaport, which has been closed since March 7 due to increasing violence.
The situation for Haitians remains precarious and dangerous.
The Americans stuck in Haiti were informed by the State Department on Saturday that a charter flight would depart from Cap-Haitien.
The port city is almost 200 kilometers from Port-au-Prince.
lhi/Reuters/AFP