From the BBC:
“Haiti's prime minister Ariel
Henry resigns as law and order collapses”
Haiti's Prime Minister Ariel
Henry has agreed to resign following weeks of mounting pressure and increasing
violence in the impoverished country. It comes after regional leaders met in
Jamaica on Monday to discuss a political transition in the country. Mr Henry is
currently stranded in Puerto Rico after being prevented by armed gangs from
returning home. He said his government would resign following the
"installation of [a transition] council." "I'm asking all
Haitians to remain calm and do everything they can for peace and stability to
come back as fast as possible," Mr Henry said in a video address
announcing his resignation.
The rise and fall of Haiti's
Ariel Henry He has not been allowed back into Haiti after leaving in late
January for visits to Guyana and Kenya, where he signed a deal on the
deployment of an international security force to help tackle violence. Mr
Henry had led the country on a supposedly interim basis since July 2021,
following former President Jovenel Moïse's assassination, but had repeatedly
postponed elections - saying security had to be restored first. Many
Haitians questioned the length of his unelected governance and Mr Henry's
resignation had been one of the key demands of the heavily armed gangs that
have recently tighten their grip on the capital, Port-au-Prince. These
gangs have attacked the main prison to help thousands of inmates escape, as
well as targeting police stations, the capital's international airport and its
port. Port-au-Prince and the surrounding region is under a month-long
state of emergency, while a curfew has been extended.
The head of the UN's World Food
Programme in Haiti, Jean-Martin Bauer, said on Monday that more than 360,000
people had now been displaced. "We're also seeing an interruption in the
flow of goods, and this has huge impacts on food markets in
Port-au-Prince," said Mr Bauer, adding that goods were currently unable to
get into Haiti by land, sea or air. The country was already dealing with
malnutrition and there are serious concerns that the problem will soon become
significantly worse. Matthias Pierre, a former elections minister in Haiti,
described the current situation in the country as "very precarious"
with an army and police force that is unequipped to deal with the unrest. Mr
Pierre, who broke the news of Mr Henry's resignation to the BBC's Newsday
programme before it was publicly confirmed, said the gangs were now pushing to
be part of any new power-sharing deal. He added that such a political
settlement was impossible without the "support" of an international
armed force.
There are now questions over what
will happen to the 1,000-strong UN-backed security force Kenya is expected to
lead in Haiti to try and restore order there. The top civil servant in
Kenya's foreign affairs ministry has told the BBC that its deployment of police
to Haiti has been put on hold following Mr Henry's resignation. Korir
Sing'oei added that Kenya would wait for the installation of a new
constitutional authority before further decisions were made. The US said
it saw no need to delay the mission. Its proposed contribution to this
security force now stands at $300m (£234m) after Secretary of State Antony
Blinken pledged a further $100m to it. Another $33m has been allocated
for humanitarian aid.
The Caricom group of Caribbean nations, which has been meeting in Jamaica to discuss the crisis in Haiti, has outlined what it wants a transitional council to look like. It would be made up of seven voting members and two observers and include representatives from several coalitions, the private sector and civil society, and one religious leader. nyone intending to run in Haiti's next elections will not be able to participate. The US said it expects the council will be appointed within the next two days, which will then appoint an interim prime minister. It is hoped the council will pave the way for the first elections in Haiti since 2016.
Haiti: The basics The Caribbean country shares a border with the Dominican Republic and has an estimated population of 11.5 million. It has a land area of 27,800 sq km, which is slightly smaller than Belgium and about the same size as the US state of Maryland. Chronic instability, dictatorships and natural disasters in recent decades have left Haiti the poorest nation in the Americas. An earthquake in 2010 killed more than 200,000 people and caused extensive damage to infrastructure and the economy. A UN peacekeeping force was put in place in 2004 to help stabilise the country and only withdrew in 2017. In July 2021, President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated by unidentified gunmen in Port-au-Prince. Amid political stalemate, the country continues to be wracked by unrest and gang violence
^ Haiti has a long history of
violence and danger. I hope that things will start to quiet down and stabilize
now. ^
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