Haiti gangs threaten civil war as PM Ariel Henry faces pressure to quit
- US pushes Haiti PM to speed transition after Group of Caribbean countries asks for his resignation
- Gangs who control swathes of the country and are trying to oust Ariel Henry have threatened civil war
Haiti Prime Minister Ariel Henry is being pressured to quit or present a plan for a new government, as gang leaders who have unleashed deadly violence tighten their grip on the country and threaten civil war.
The US State Department wants Henry – who has been absent from Haiti as it has descended into lawlessness – to accelerate the timeline for elections and fulfil a pledge he has been dodging since taking over in 2021.
The Caribbean Community, which includes 15 nations, explicitly asked him to resign on Tuesday and make way for a new administration.
Also on Tuesday, gang leader Jimmy “Barbecue” Cherizier said Henry’s potential return to Haiti would unleash a “civil war” and “genocide,” according to the Le Nouvelliste newspaper.
Over the last few days, gangs including Cherizier’s have freed more than 4,500 inmates, attacked the main international airport and burned police stations. Half the nation’s population is going hungry.
Ronald Sanders, Antigua and Barbuda’s ambassador to the US, said that Henry received a note from the Caribbean Community asking for his resignation, but that “he has refused to do that”.
What’s unclear is how Henry will be able to make his way back to Haiti, after leaving the country February 25 and re-emerging in Puerto Rico on Tuesday. Also unclear is the role, if any, the US will play in helping him.
“What we’ve asked the Haitian Prime Minister to do is move forward on a political process that will lead to the establishment of a presidential transitional council that will lead to elections,” Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the US ambassador to the United Nations, said on Wednesday. “And we think that is urgent.”
Gangs now control 80 per cent of the capital, Port-au-Prince, and almost 2,000 people have died in the escalating violence since January, according to the UN.
A UN Security Council meeting on Wednesday focused on the deteriorating humanitarian situation and escalating violence in the country.
Malta’s UN ambassador Vanessa Frazier said that every Security Council member “shared the same concerns, that the security situation is obviously concerning”.
“Henry has been in charge for two and half years and he hasn’t done one tangible, positive thing to impact the Haitian population,” said Dan Foote, the former US Special Envoy for Haiti. “He’s not in control of the country. It’s already a failed state.”
Henry was swept into power in the wake of the 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moise. While he has enjoyed international backing, Haitians often see him as an unelected autocrat who used gang violence as an excuse to keep putting off elections.
Between violence, the political crisis and years of drought, some 5.5 million Haitians – about half the population – need humanitarian assistance.
After months of delays, the UN Security Council finally gave its greenlight in October for a multinational policing mission led by Kenya.
But that deployment has been stalled by Kenyan courts.
Nairobi and Port-au-Prince signed a bilateral agreement on Friday on the mission, but it remains without a firm start date.
Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse
