Haiti’s prime minister ousted after six months

Haitian Prime Minister Garry Conille has been fired by the country’s ruling council less than six months after he took office.

An executive order, signed by eight of the council’s nine members, named businessman and former Haiti Senate candidate Alix Didier Fils-Aime as Conille’s replacement.

Conille, a former United Nations official, was brought in to lead Haiti through an ongoing, gang-led security crisis and had been expected to help pave the way for the country’s first presidential elections since 2016.

He described his ousting as illegal, saying in a letter – seen by Reuters news agency – that it raised “serious concerns” about Haiti’s future.

Haiti currently has neither a president nor parliament and, according to its constitution, only the latter can sack a sitting prime minister.

Conille was sworn in on 3 June.

“This resolution, taken outside any legal and constitutional framework, raises serious concerns about its legitimacy,” Conille’s letter was quoted as saying.

Haiti’s transitional presidential council (TPC) was created in April after Ariel Henry, Conille’s predecessor, was forced from office by a network of gangs that had taken over parts of the capital Port-au-Prince.

Henry left Haiti to attend a summit in Guyana on 25 February 2024 and gang members subsequently seized the city’s international airport, preventing him from returning.

The TPC was tasked with restoring democratic order to the Caribbean country, where such violence is rife.

More than 3,600 people have been killed in Haiti since January and more than 500,000 have had to leave their homes, according to the UN, which describes Haiti as being one of the poorest countries in the world.

Credit: bbc.com

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