Haiti’s interim Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who is stranded abroad due to gang violence, has announced his resignation. Haiti needs peace and stability, he said in a video message published on Tuesday night (local time). A seven-member presidential council is now to be founded to lead the transition to elections and appoint a new interim prime minister, as Guyana’s President Mohamed Irfaan Ali had announced shortly before after a meeting of the heads of government of Caribbean states in Jamaica. As soon as that happens, he will resign from office, said Henry. Powerful criminal gangs that control large parts of Haiti and almost the entire capital Port-au-Prince had called for his resignation.
Henry took over the reins of government in Haiti as interim prime minister on July 20, 2021, around two weeks after the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse. Moïse had chosen him as the seventh prime minister of his term less than 36 hours before his death. However, Henry had not yet taken office before the assassination attempt. Under the aegis of the 74-year-old neurosurgeon, elections were postponed several times due to the security situation and have not yet been rescheduled.
The violence of the brutal gangs, which, according to the UN, already control around 80 percent of Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince, has escalated since the end of February. The two most powerful gangs joined forces and demanded Henry’s resignation when he traveled abroad, first to Guyana and, on March 1, to Kenya – the East African country had agreed to lead a UN Security Council-approved security mission in Haiti. He last flew to Puerto Rico on March 5 after the Dominican Republic, which borders Haiti, did not grant him permission to land. Dominican President Luis Abinader declared Henry persona non grata for security reasons.
The pressure on Henry to resign his office grew ever greater. The United States, which many Haitians and political experts say has kept Henry in power, called on him to accelerate the political transition toward elections. According to Guyana’s President Ali, the Presidential Council that is now to be founded should be composed of representatives of Haitian society and politics
At the meeting in Jamaica’s capital Kingston, the USA had previously increased its financial commitment for a multinational security mission in the crisis state of Haiti by 100 million to 300 million dollars (around 274 million euros). Blinken also pledged $33 million in humanitarian aid to Haiti.