Armed gangs attacked Haiti’s two biggest prisons at the weekend, allowing the escape of perhaps thousands of inmates and prompting the government to declare a state of emergency on Sunday night. The government said in a statement the attacks “led to the deaths and injuries of police and prison staff, the escape of dangerous prisoners, and the devastation of these facilities.” The government did not give exact casualty figures. Media reports on the number of escaped prisoners varied – from hundreds to almost all of the nearly 3,700 detainees at the national prison in Port-au-Prince. The police …