Haitian Prime Minister Henry leaves, transition council takes charge to end chaos

NOS News•today, 5:45 PM

Haiti’s Prime Minister Ariel Henry has officially resigned. He confirmed his departure in a short letter, dated April 24 and written in Los Angeles. The letter was shared by his government on social media today.

Henry has been forced to stay in Puerto Rico since the end of February. Two weeks ago he announced that he would resign from his position once a transitional council and an interim prime minister had been appointed. The transitional council, consisting of nine members, will be sworn in today. Henry’s former Minister of Finance, Patrick Boisvert, will immediately start as temporary Prime Minister of Haiti.

The transitional council has a mandate until February 7, 2026, when a new prime minister must be appointed on that date. Before then, elections must be called and a new electoral commission appointed. The council may also help determine what the plans of a new government should look like.

According to Henry, his government “served the nation in difficult times”. Haiti has long been suffering from gang violence and poverty. Earlier this year there was an explosion of violence: armed gangs took over the international airport, stormed the country’s largest prison and set fires to police stations and hospitals in the capital Port-au-Prince.

Henry was in Kenya at the time to broker a deal for a UN mission to Haiti to control gang violence. The Prime Minister was subsequently unable to return to his country. Gang leaders demanded his immediate departure.

The situation in Haiti is still chaotic. More than 100,000 residents have fled the capital since the outbreak of violence. Many thousands of others are staying in makeshift shelters in the city. “Port-au-Prince is currently almost completely closed off and cannot be reached by sea or air due to blockades,” the director of Unicef ​​said this week.