Power vacuum in Haiti as leader quits after week of gang violence

Haiti is facing a dangerous power vacuum after the resignation of its prime minister, Ariel Henry, after a gang insurrection that erupted while he was on an overseas trip.

- Peter Beaumont , Luke Taylor

Henry, who is now in Puerto Rico, said he would formally quit after the installation of a transitional council to lead the Caribbean state, which has been in chaos since the assassination of its president Jovenel Moises in July 2021 by Colombian mercenaries.

"For more than a week, our country has experienced an increase in acts of violence of all kinds perpetrated against the population: assassinations, attacks against law enforcement, looting, systematic destruction of public and private buildings," Henry said in a video statement.

"We deplore the numerous losses of human life. The government that I lead cannot remain indifferent to this situation. As I have always said, no sacrifice is too great for our common homeland Haiti.

"I'm asking all Haitians to remain calm and do everything they can for peace and stability to come back as fast as possible."

Haitian leaders meeting in Jamaica have agreed to form a new transitional government led by a seven-member presidential council that will choose a new interim prime minister, but it is unclear who will lead Haiti out of the crisis that has involved a wholesale collapse of democratic accountability in a country that last had elections in 2016.

Henry had been trying to secure a UN-backed taskforce of foreign troops to bolster the country's police and shore up order since October 2022. On 1 March, he finally got Kenya to sign an agreement to send 1,000 officers to the Caribbean.

But Kenyan officials said yesterday that the deployment would be put on hold until a new government was announced.