Haiti’s Transitional Council took power in a ceremony on Thursday, formalizing the resignation of former Prime Minister Ariel Henry as the Caribbean nation seeks to establish security after years of gang violence and chaos and misery. did.
Henri’s finance minister, Michel-Patrick Boisvert, will serve as caretaker prime minister until the transition council appoints a new head of government, ministers and an interim electoral council to pave the way for a final vote.
“Today is an important day in the life of our dear republic and, in effect, this day opens up prospects for a solution,” Boisvert said Thursday morning after the swearing-in of the nine-member Transitional Council. Stated.
Regine Abraham, a non-voting member of the council, expressed gratitude to Haiti’s security forces and international mediators, saying the council supported security, national consultations on constitutional reform, preparation for elections, the judicial system and the economy. He said that he would focus on rebuilding.
“We are witnessing a complete collapse of the system and failure of the government,” she said.
Residents of Port-au-Prince were “literally held hostage,” she added.
“In the face of this unprecedented crisis, all our people have realized that we urgently need a firm hand to pull us out of the spiral of despair and destruction.”
Even as Congress was being sworn in, local media reported arson and shootings at homes in the capital’s downtown and Delmas neighborhoods, with images of columns of gray smoke rising above the skyline and people carrying belongings in the streets. It posted a video of a family leaving the area.
Armed groups, mostly equipped with weapons trafficked from the United States, have been tightening their grip on the capital for years and have been trying to overthrow Henry.
They have called for a broader “revolution” since he promised to resign last month.
Earlier this week, gang leader Jimmy “Barbecue” Cherizier warned members of the transition council to “brace yourselves.”
In an unverified audio recording that circulated on social media over the weekend, Chéridier appears to order soldiers to indiscriminately burn down houses in Lower Delmas, the impoverished area of the capital where he grew up.
Boisvert and other members of the transition council were flanked by senior police and military officials during the ceremony, which was held under tight security at the prime minister’s residence in Villa d’Acuille.
Mr Henry announced last month that he would step down once the council was formed, and although he was originally expected to do so within days, it was postponed after disagreements over who would sit on the council.
Henry left Haiti in late February to seek support for its poorly armed police force, but was stuck in Puerto Rico amid fears that gangs could take over the capital completely.
Mr. Boisvert served as acting Prime Minister in Henry’s absence.
The term of the caretaker government will expire in February 2026, when elections are scheduled, and it cannot be renewed. No date has been set for the appointment of a new prime minister or speaker of parliament.
“Complex gap”
“We just hope that the board will quickly choose a chairperson or coordinator so that we can move on to the second stage of appointing the prime minister and other members of the government,” said James Boyard, a security expert at the National University of Haiti. said. .
“The new caretaker government has a lot of work ahead of it, and all issues are urgent, along with security.”
Diego da Rin, an analyst at the International Crisis Group, warned of a “long and difficult road ahead” with tensions rising within the council as different factions vie for power.
Local organization Together Against Corruption (ECC) published a letter calling on the new authorities to ensure financial transparency to “demonstrate their intention to help build a government that breaks with the past”.
The creation of the council is seen as an important step towards rolling out the multinational security mission that Henry called for in 2022 and the United Nations approved more than six months ago.
Kenya offered to lead the mission, but plans were put on hold last month until a new Haitian government was formed.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres called on the new authorities to quickly introduce new governance structures to enable the mission’s deployment.
The mission received less cash and troops than the UN needs.
Council members must support the “accelerated deployment” of the mission in accordance with the establishment edict.
But some Haitians are wary after previous international interventions left behind a deadly cholera outbreak and a sexual abuse scandal.
Some hope the mission will help restore much-needed security and pave the way for eventual elections.
The United Nations estimates that gang violence killed or injured more than 2,500 people between January and March, leaving hundreds of thousands internally displaced and millions facing crippling hunger. .
Major ports have been closed for more than a month, but on Thursday the Florida-based nonprofit Hope for Haiti announced that the first humanitarian flight had landed in Port-au-Prince since the capital’s airport closed: US Developing a rehydration solution for cholera patients, for which military aircraft carried 20 pallets.
Separately, the Haitian National Police announced that it had received a shipment of equipment paid for by the Haitian government and airlifted by U.S. authorities.
Foreign diplomats hailed the ceremony as an important step towards restoring security, and Kenyan President William Ruto said Kenya was “ready and ready” to work with its partners to “quickly implement security support infrastructure”. , he said he was “delighted.”
“Kenya pledges its full support to the Haitian Transitional Presidential Council as it guides the country through this complex interregnum,” Ruto told X.
The council members installed were the same as those announced last week. The seven voters are all male and include representatives of various political parties, former diplomats, lawyers and businessmen. The two non-voting observers were a pastor and a former government official. Advisor.
“We will continue our fight for the transformation of our country,” one of the council members, former central bank governor Fritz Alphonse Jean, told X.
“This country needs the talents of every son and daughter here and in the diaspora to build a new Haiti.”
