Photo: Dieu Nalio Chery Associated Press Garry Conille, a 58-year-old doctor, was previously Prime Minister of Haiti for six months between 2011 and 2012.
France Media Agency in Port-au-Prince
Posted at 8:57 p.m. Updated at 9:20 p.m.
- Americas
The presidential transitional council in Haiti chose Garry Conille on Tuesday to become the new interim prime minister, several members of this council announced, at a time when this Caribbean country is in the midst of a political and security crisis. , and humanitarian.
Garry Conille, a 58-year-old doctor who was already Prime Minister of Haiti for six months between 2011 and 2012, was appointed following the Prime Minister Ariel Henry resigned in March amid a surge in gang violence in the country.
The presidential transitional council, set up in April, is agitated by power struggles and is struggling to tackle the problems that are gnawing at the country. The appointment of an interim prime minister was thus long awaited.
At the end of February, gangs launched coordinated attacks against strategic sites in Port-au-Prince , saying he wanted to overthrow Ariel Henry.
The capital Port-au-Prince is 80% in the hands of criminal gangs, accused of numerous abuses, in particular murders, rapes, looting and kidnapping for ransom.
The population is also facing a serious humanitarian crisis, with shortages of food, medicine and other basic products.
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The health system is thus “on the verge of collapse”, Unicef warned last week.
“The combination of “violence, mass displacement, dangerous epidemics and increasing malnutrition have collapsed the health system, but the strangulation of the supply chain could break it,” says the organization.
“Breaking the gangs”
Ravaged by gang violence, Haiti is still awaiting the deployment of a first contingent of the multinational force led by Kenya, whose arrival was hoped for last week but ultimately postponed.
The murder announced Friday of three people, including two American missionaries, in an attack by armed gangs, has revived calls for rapid deployment.
“The security situation in Haiti cannot wait,” said a spokesperson for the American executive last week.
During a parliamentary hearing, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke of a country “on the verge of becoming a failed state” emphasizing the need to send such a multinational force there.
The mission supported by the UN and in which the United States is very involved on the logistical level – without however providing men – must support the Haitian police in the fight against the gangs which terrorize the population and largely control the capital Port-au-Prince.
Kenya and the other countries that will deploy in Haiti aim to “secure this country and break up the gangs and criminals who have inflicted untold suffering on this country,” Kenyan President William Ruto said last week.
“This is a crisis. It is possible to cope with it,” assured American President Joe Biden, praising Kenya’s “first-rate capabilities”.