Haiti’s Prime Minister Ariel Henry announced his planned resignation weeks ago. He was never able to return to Haiti because of gang attacks near the airport. His formal resignation took place yesterday as the new transitional council took charge. They selected a new acting PM who will remain in place until elections can be held..
The prime minister of Haiti, Ariel Henry, formally signed his resignation letter on Wednesday, paving the way for a new government and bringing a measure of political stability to a nation mired in gang violence and an unfolding humanitarian crisis.
With the sound of gunshots as a backdrop, the nine members of a transitional council took the oath of office early on Thursday in the National Palace…
Michel Patrick Boisvert, a former Haitian minister of economy and finance who stepped in for Mr. Henry in his absence, was named as acting prime minister.
The gangs that have been controlling most of Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, stepped up their attacks this week in a failed attempt to prevent the transfer of power.
The Lower Delmas area is turning into “a battlefield between police and armed gangs,” Radio Tele Galaxie said on X, saying loud blasts were heard as far as the neighborhood’s city hall, as well as automatic gunfire near the National Palace.
Two voice recordings circulated on social media which users attributed to gang leader Jimmy “Barbeque” Cherizier apparently ordering his soldiers to burn houses down in Lower Delmas, an impoverished part of the capital where he grew up.
“Continue burning the houses. Make everybody leave,” a man says in the first audio recording. In another, he says he has sent jugs of gasoline: “No need to know which house. Burn every house you find. Set the fire,” he says.
Barbeque’s stated goal to this point was to force PM Henry to resign. But as that moment came near he simply started making threats against the new council instead.
“Whether or not you’re installed, this message is for you: Brace yourselves,” gang leader Jimmy “Barbeque” Cherizier ominously warned in a Tuesday video shared on social media.
Cherizier has called for toppling the government.
It’s pretty clear that Barbecue wants the job himself and then gangs aren’t going to stop until he gets it. With the gangs out to put an end to the new council, the big question that still remains is who is going to put an end to the gangs. Former PM Henry was on a trip to Kenya to sign an agreement which would have brought 1,000 Kenyan police officers to Haiti when the surge of gang violence forced him from power. Since then the status of the peacekeeping force has remained unclear.
The council’s installation is seen as a key step towards the deployment of a multinational security mission Henry requested back in 2022 and the United Nations approved more than six months ago. Though Kenya offered to lead this mission, plans were put on hold last month pending the establishment of a new Haitian government.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for the new authorities to implement new governance arrangements swiftly to allow for the mission’s deployment. The mission has received less cash and fewer troops than the U.N. has said it needs.
The council members must, as per the decree installing them, support the mission’s “accelerated deployment.” But some Haitians are wary after previous international interventions left behind a deadly cholera outbreak and sexual abuse scandal.
There don’t seem to be a lot of good options. One of the members of the newly installed transitional council made clear just how bad things are at the moment. Check out this to-do list.
Regine Abraham, a non-voting council member, thanked Haiti’s security forces and international mediators and said the council would focus on security, a national consultation on constitutional reform, preparing for elections, rebuilding the judiciary system and the economy.
“We are seeing the total collapse of our institutions and failure of a government,” she said.
Port-au-Prince residents have “literally been taken hostage,” she added.
“Facing this unprecedented crisis, the entire population has recognized the urgent need for a firm hand to take us out of this spiral of despair and destruction.”
Taking a firm hand sounds good but, again, who is going to do it? The National Police force is barely holding on. Almost nothing else in the country is working at all. This report is from ABC in Australia.