Haiti awaits new government, but UN-backed mission in doubt

Haiti on Tuesday readied for a new government after its prime minister agreed to step down over spiraling gang violence, but a planned UN-backed stability mission floundered when lead-nation Kenya put its role on hold.

Gang violence has plunged the Caribbean country into renewed chaos since last week, leaving public services shattered, many people displaced and bodies strewn in the streets.

The capital Port-au-Prince was calm Tuesday after Prime Minister Ariel Henry – who has been stuck abroad since the latest unrest erupted – announced overnight he would resign, saying "no sacrifice is too great for our homeland."

Gangs who rule much of the city had demanded Henry's departure after they launched a series of attacks on police stations, prisons and other infrastructure.

But Haiti has been in a cycle of violence for years, and Henry's resignation is not certain to help ordinary people who face worsening shortages of food and medicine.

The World Food Program said it cannot get food into Port-au-Prince, and that 1.4 million people nationwide face emergency levels of food scarcity.

The gangs went on a coordinated offensive while Henry was in Nairobi to try to secure deployment of the Kenya-led, multinational police mission. In a blow for Haitian hopes, Kenya on Tuesday paused its plans.

Korir Sing'oei, principal secretary for foreign affairs, said that "without a political administration in Haiti, there is no anchor on which a police deployment can rest."

The United States – which has vowed to not send troops – quickly responded, saying the mission was still on track.

Risk of civil war

Henry has remained in power in Haiti since president Jovenel Moise's 2021 assassination, but it is unclear who would lead the country next.

The Caribbean Community (CARICOM), the Caribbean regional body, had secured his resignation at a crisis meeting in Jamaica on Monday.

"The government I lead cannot remain insensitive to this situation," Henry said in his address, adding his government agreed to the creation of a "presidential transition council" and that he would resign when it was installed.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken spent seven hours in the talks in a Kingston hotel, and U.S. official traveling with Blinken said that Henry had agreed to quit on Friday.

Escalating violence "creates an untenable situation for the Haitian people, and we all know that urgent action is needed on both the political and security tracks," Blinken said.

Authority has badly eroded in Haiti, which has not held national elections since 2016. A nighttime curfew was extended through Thursday – although it is unlikely overstretched police can enforce it.

Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness, the host of the crisis talks, warned of all-out civil war.

"It is clear that Haiti is now at a tipping point," he said, urging action to "stem the sea of lawlessness and hopelessness before it is too late."

CARICOM, in a statement with its partners and the United Nations, said that Haiti's new Transitional Presidential Council would have seven voting members, including political parties, the private sector and a civil society coalition.

"This is a way forward," the UN secretary-general's spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.

"It is important that the international community, CARICOM and others support this path, and we hope that will lead to better days for the Haitian people."

(With input from AFP)