Former Haitian Prime Minister Garry Conille has been called by the Transitional Presidential Council to return to the role during the government’s transition period.
Council president Edgard Leblanc Fils announced on Tuesday that Conille was chosen by the consensus of the council after a series of other candidates were also considered, CNN reports.
This appointment is a necessary step to restoring law and order in the crippled nation as they attempt to restructure their civil government. Prime Minister Conille and the nine-member council will also be selecting temporary cabinet officials who will serve until the nation is ready for democratic elections to take place.
This decision by the council comes almost a month after former prime minister, Ariel Henry, resigned in April.
Henry, “who had been locked out of the country for the past couple of months due to the violence, cleared the way for the transition by presenting his resignation in a letter signed in Los Angeles,” according to the Associated Press.
Since February, attacks by an insurgent alliance of gangs in Port-au-Prince have shut down the city’s international airport and seaport, disrupting vital food and aid supply lines and prompting evacuation flights for foreign nationals. The violence escalated while Prime Minister Ariel Henry was in Kenya to secure support for a multinational security mission.
Unable to return amid the chaos, Henry announced his intention to resign in March, plunging Haiti’s political establishment into weeks of negotiations to form a transitional government.
The decision regarding the provisional government sparked controversy among Haitians, who advocated for Haitian-led solutions since this solution was largely brokered by the United States and surrounding Caribbean nations.
The turmoil has been escalating since the 2010 earthquake, which left the country devastated and vulnerable to political corruption and armed criminal and insurgent groups. These groups now control much of the capital, Port-au-Prince, leading to a significant increase in violence, including killings, kidnappings, and rapes.
This week, the daughter and son-in-law of a Missouri state representative were killed in Haiti while conducting mission work.
Armed groups have attacked key infrastructure, and the country’s largest port has been blocked, threatening food supplies and exacerbating the already dire humanitarian conditions. Haiti’s inability to recover from natural disasters and political instability has left the nation in a precarious state, with deep poverty and famine looming.
