Haiti’s Transitional Council has moved to replace Prime Minister Garry Conille as a power struggle threatens to plunge the crisis-torn country into new chaos. This was reported by the AFP news agency on Sunday with reference to the local official gazette.
By the decision of the nine-member board on Monday, November 11, Conille is dismissed after five months in office and replaced by businessman Alix Didier Fils-Aimé.
The decision, which was taken on November 8, comes after weeks of conflict between the transitional council and Conillo, a former UN official and academic who was appointed in May to lead the Caribbean country, which has faced soaring and long-term political instability.
According to a document obtained by AFP, Conille sent a letter to the transitional council asking that the decision not be officially published. According to the Miami Herald, the council wanted to replace the justice, finance, defense and health ministers in a power struggle, but the prime minister refused.
The council is in conflict with Conillo and also demands the resignation of three members due to corruption
Conille sent a letter to the council this week demanding the resignation of three of its members accused of corruption. It was not immediately clear whether the council – whose members represent various political and civil society groups – even has the power to remove Conille.
The council is a new body that is not listed in the constitution and was not approved by parliament because Haiti currently does not have a legislature.
The country has long been rocked by gang violence, but the situation worsened sharply in late February when armed groups launched coordinated attacks in the capital, Port-au-Prince, to oust then-Prime Minister Ariel Henry.
Unelected and unpopular, Henry stepped down amid the violence and handed power to a transitional council backed by the US and the region. Despite the arrival of a Kenyan-led police support mission, gang violence continues to rise in Haiti.
The United Nations (UN) reported in late October that more than 1,200 people had been killed between July and September, and that kidnappings and sexual violence against women and girls continued.
Haiti has not held elections since 2016, deepening the political vacuum that has exacerbated the existing security and health crisis. In recent years, gangs have controlled 80 percent of the capital, Port-au-Prince.
