Haiti Prime Minister submits permanent resignation after violent uprising | Abroad

Two weeks ago, the Haitian government announced a transitional council. This council must ensure that there is a stable government that restores order in the country. The nine-member transition council was installed on Thursday, at the same time as Prime Minister Henry resigned.

Henry had been abroad since the gang uprising began. They united in late February under the leadership of notorious gang leader Jimmy Chérizier in an attempt to overthrow Henry. The gangs stormed police stations and prisons as the prime minister visited Kenya. There he tried to reach an agreement for the deployment of Kenyan police officers against criminal gangs in Haiti.

The Prime Minister has not been able to return to Haiti since then. He sent his resignation letter from the American city of Los Angeles. Henry had announced his resignation in March, but it was not yet known when he would leave permanently.

There has been long-standing frustration in Haiti over Henry’s remaining as prime minister. Henry became acting head of state after the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in 2021, without elections.

Since then, Henry had promised several times to resign and make way for new elections, but that never happened. After Henry failed to keep his promise to resign by February this year, the gangs rioted.

The transitional council now faces the task of restoring peace to the poverty-stricken country. Since Moïse’s murder, Haiti has regularly experienced violence.

The transitional council must determine who will be the new prime minister and government. The council also appoints an election committee to prepare presidential elections. The council’s mandate expires in February 2026, when the new president must be installed.

Meanwhile, there is still unrest in Haiti. During the installation of the transitional council, several shots were heard from the street, the news agency reported AP and the BBC.

According to a member of the transitional council, criminal gangs control a large part of the capital Port-au-Prince. Tens of thousands of Haitians have fled their homes due to the violence and 900 schools have been closed since the uprising. In the first three months of 2024, 2,500 people were killed by gang violence, far more than in the same period a year earlier.

Many Haitians are angry about the unrest in the country, reports AP. A large part of the population blames the gangs for the chaos in Haiti.

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