Haiti’s prime minister, who has come under increasing pressure to resign as gangs have invaded the country, said late Monday that he would resign once a transitional council is established to pave the way for the election of a new president and help restore stability. .
“The government I lead will withdraw immediately following the installation of this council,” Prime Minister Ariel Henry said a speech published on social media. Referring to the chaos in Haiti, he said: “It hurts and disgusts us to see all these people dying. The government I lead cannot remain insensitive to this situation.”
But it was far from clear when Mr. Henry, who had come under increasing pressure to resign both in Haiti and abroad, would actually do so.
Leaders of Caribbean nations, who have led the push to create a transition council, met for discussions in Jamaica on Monday but said no plans had been finalized. Guyana’s President Mohamed Irfaan Ali, who heads Caricom, a union of 15 Caribbean countries, said “we still have a long way to go.”
This was announced by Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, present at the meeting in Kingston, the capital of Jamaica that the United States would provide an additional $100 million in aid to a United Nations-backed multinational security mission planned to deploy to Haiti. He also pledged an additional $33 million in humanitarian aid, bringing U.S. commitments to $333 million.
“We can help. We can help restore the foundations of security,” Blinken said. “Only the Haitian people can, and only the Haitian people should determine their own future, no one else.”
Mr Henry left Haiti for Kenya in early March to finalize a deal for the multinational force, led by the East African nation, to deploy and tackle the gangs. Since then, he has been stranded outside his country as members of his gangs wreak havoc and demand his resignation.
Mr. Henry, who was in Puerto Rico, did not attend Monday’s meeting and it was unclear whether he took part in the discussion remotely.
After months of delays, Haiti and Kenya signed an agreement this month to proceed with the deployment of 1,000 Kenyan police officers to the Caribbean nation. President William Ruto of Kenya said his country had a “historic duty” to move forward because “peace in Haiti is good for the world as a whole.”
Kenya’s Interior Minister Kithure Kindiki announced on Monday that the mission was in the “pre-deployment phase” and that all other programs and enforcement measures related to the deployment were already in place.
So far, however, there is no clear timeline for when the multinational force will be deployed.
“We are deeply saddened that it is already too late for too many who have lost too much at the hands of criminal gangs,” said Andrew Holness, Prime Minister of Jamaica. “The fear that the situation in Haiti could deteriorate into a civil war is now real. We all agree that this cannot be allowed to happen, not in our hemisphere.”
Haiti has been plunged into a state of extreme turmoil since the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in 2021 led to widespread gang violence. To date, the country has no president or other elected national officials.
Mr Henry was sworn in as prime minister just two weeks after Mr Moïse’s murder. But Haitians have not yet managed to choose a democratically elected successor.
The current unrest is on a scale not seen for decades. The recent escalation of violence, gang attacks on police stations and even coordinated assaults on two prisons have forced Haitians to face a humanitarian disaster as access to food, water and healthcare has been severely reduced .
Over the weekend, U.S. forces evacuated nonessential U.S. citizen workers from the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince and added additional security personnel, according to a statement from the Department of Defense’s Southern Command. He said no Haitians were included in the airlift.
