Haiti\u2019s Prime Minister Ariel Henry announced his resignation on Thursday, handing power over to a transitional council that will seek to gain control of the violence-ravaged nation. <\/p>\n
Henry wrote in his resignation letter dated Wednesday that, \u201cgiven the current state of affairs,\u201d the time was right for him to step down. \u201cWe have served the nation in difficult times. I thank everyone who had the courage to face such challenges with me,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Haiti has been overrun by chaos and gang violence in recent weeks, with criminal groups attacking government structures and social order on the brink of collapse. <\/p>\n
The Caribbean nation\u2019s finance minister Michael Patrick Boisvert has been appointed as interim prime minister until a new government is formed, according to an X post from Henry\u2019s office on Thursday. <\/p>\n
\u201cHaiti, our country, is at a crossroads in the search for solutions to overcome this multidimensional political crisis, that has lasted for so long, and the consequences of which are detrimental to the population, to property, and both public and private infrastructures,\u201d Boisvert said at the swearing-in ceremony at the Prime Minister\u2019s office, Villa d\u2019Accueil. <\/p>\n
A transitional council, composed of seven voting members and two non-voting observers, has been tasked with the responsibility of naming a new prime minister and cabinet. The committee will exercise certain presidential powers until a new president-elect is inaugurated, which must take place no later than February 7, 2026. <\/p>\n
Henry announced in March his plans to step down once a decision on the country\u2019s future leadership was made, and the transitional council was set up soon after. <\/p>\n
The Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM) welcomed the council\u2019s formation in a statement earlier this month, hoping it would mark \u201ca new beginning for Haiti.\u201d <\/p>\n
The United Nations Secretary General\u2019s spokesperson Stephane Dujarric also welcomed the news and called for the swift deployment of a multinational security mission to support Haiti\u2019s police. <\/p>\n
Since February, attacks by an insurgent alliance of gangs in the capital Port-au-Prince mean the city\u2019s international airport and seaport have ceased to function, breaking vital supply lines of food and aid and triggering an exodus of evacuation flights for foreign nationals. <\/p>\n
With the city virtually cut off from the outside world, hospitals have been vandalized while warehouses and containers storing food and essential supplies have been broken into as the social fabric frays. <\/p>\n
According to the UN, nearly 5 million people in Haiti are suffering from acute food insecurity \u2013 defined as when a person\u2019s inability to consume adequate food poses immediate danger to their lives or livelihoods. <\/p>\n
The UN human rights office meanwhile described sexual violence in Haiti as \u201cseverely underreported and largely unpunished,\u201d in a harrowing report that documented cases of rape and forced sexual relations with gang members, as well surging levels of gang violence in the country. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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Haiti\u2019s Prime Minister Ariel Henry announced his resignation on Thursday, handing power over to a transitional council that will seek to gain control of the violence-ravaged nation. Henry wrote in his resignation letter dated Wednesday that, \u201cgiven the current state of affairs,\u201d the time was right for him to step down. \u201cWe have served the <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2344,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2343","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2343"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2343\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}