Haiti updates: PM Ariel Henry tenders resignation amid crisis
Here are the news updates for Tuesday, March 12, 2024.
- Haiti’s PM Ariel Henry tendered his resignation following an emergency meeting of regional nations and appealed for calm as the country descends into chaos.
- Regional leaders of the Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM) have held an emergency summit to discuss a framework for political transition, which the US had urged be “expedited” as armed gangs wreak chaos amid repeatedly postponed elections.
- Haiti’s PM Ariel Henry tendered his resignation following an emergency meeting of regional nations and appealed for calm as the country descends into chaos.
- Regional leaders of the Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM) have held an emergency summit to discuss a framework for political transition, which the US had urged be “expedited” as armed gangs wreak chaos amid repeatedly postponed elections.
- Henry is set to be replaced by a presidential council that will have two observers and seven voting members, including representatives from a number of political coalitions, the business sector, civil society and one religious leader.
- A nightly curfew is in place until Thursday after armed gangs waged battle in the capital Port-au-Prince over the weekend.
Here’s what happened today
We will be closing this live page soon. Here are some of the main developments from today:
- Haiti’s Prime Minister Ariel Henry tendered his resignation and appealed for calm as the country descends into chaos.
- There has yet to be a response from the gangs taking control of Haiti, especially the influential gang leader Jimmy “Barbecue” Cherizier who warned of a “civil war” unless Henry stepped down.
- In Port-au-Prince, there were some celebrations at the news of Henry’s resignation amid great apprehension for what comes next.
- The international and Caribbean community put forward a proposal for a transitional council, but gangs are likely to pursue their goal of establishing a “troika” – a government composed of three members picked by them.
- Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness, who hosted crisis talks that secured Henry’s resignation, warned Haiti risks all-out civil war.
Kenya police deployment now on hold: Report
A plan to send about 1,000 police officers from Kenya to bolster Haiti’s beleaguered security forces is now on hold after Henry’s resignation, a news report says.
When Henry was in Kenya in early March to try to speed up the deployment of the multinational mission, armed gangs launched a coordinated assault to remove him.
“The deal they signed with the president [William Ruto] still stands although the deployment will not happen now because definitely we will require a sitting government to also collaborate with,” Kenya’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Salim Swaleh was quoted by The New York Times as saying.
“We will definitely have to work with some sort of an administration for you to fulfill that mandate,” he said. “Then, if there’s none, of course, we cannot just put the police out there.”
Gangs have grown to become ‘a power unto themselves’
Robert Fatton, professor of government and foreign affairs at the University of Virginia, says the autonomy of the gangs in Haiti has reached a critical point.
“For the last three years, the gangs started to gain autonomy, and now they are a power unto themselves,” he told The Associated Press, likening them to a “mini-Mafia state”.
“They are capable now of imposing certain conditions on the government itself,” he said, adding, “Those who created the gangs created a monster. And now the monster may not be totally in charge, but it has the capacity to block any kind of solution.”
‘Blew up in their face’: Haitian leaders’ dependence on gangs at root of crisis
The most important cause of the current violence is the Haitian rulers’ increasing dependence on street gangs, some experts say.
Haiti hasn’t had a standing army or a well-funded and robust national police force for decades. UN and US interventions have come and gone without the development of a solid tradition of honest political institutions.
“Now you have these different politicians that have been collaborating with these gangs for years and … it blew up in their face,” Michael Deibert, author of Haiti Will Not Perish: A Recent History, told The Associated Press.
“It wasn’t the police defending their government’s Palais Nacional. … It was thousands of armed civilians.”
The state has grown fatally weak, and gangs are stepping in to take its place. Many see them as stakeholders in negotiations over the country’s future.
‘Big questions around what will happen next’
There seems to be a disconnect between the proposal for a transitional government put forward by the international and Caribbean community and what gangs want.
What we do know is they want to set up a “troika” – a government composed of three members, including a former coup leader previously in jail on drug charges – and some kind of amnesty for gang members.
On the streets of Port-au-Prince, there were some celebrations at the news of [Prime Minister Ariel] Henry resigning. But it’s likely gangs will continue to attempt to establish their control on the ground.
His resignation is a step forward and the seven-member transitional council may enable the country to pass decrees and take other needed measures, but there are big questions around what will happen next.
WATCH: Haiti crisis explained
Haiti at a tipping point: Jamaican PM
Andrew Holness, who hosted the crisis talks that secured Ariel Henry’s resignation, has warned that Haiti risked all-out civil war.
“It is clear that Haiti is now at a tipping point,” the Jamaican prime minister said, urging “strong and decisive action” to “stem the sea of lawlessness and hopelessness before it is too late”.
Haiti’s capital remains at ‘standstill’ after PM resignation
Laurent Uwumuremyi, the Haiti country director for humanitarian group Mercy Corps, says Port-au-Prince remains paralysed as the rise in gang attacks continues “to spread terror”.
“Main roads are still barricaded. The main international airport is still closed. The traffic is not fluid because people are still afraid of going out, even in the neighbourhoods which have not been attacked,” Uwumuremyi told Al Jazeera.
Prime Minister Ariel Henry’s resignation announcement “has not yet generated any effect in the city”, he added.
“The situation today is like yesterday,” said Uwumuremyi, with “very few people moving around because of the fear”.
Haitians looking for water, food get reprieve
Harold Isaac, a journalist in Port-au-Prince, has told Al Jazeera that, in the last 48 hours, Haiti has witnessed a “reprieve” regarding food and water supplies.
Isaac said the past week had been especially tough for residents looking for provisions. Haiti’s airport remained closed due to gang violence and the main port – a key source for food imports – was subject to looting.
The UN has repeatedly warned that with armed gangs in charge of key transport routes in Haiti, the country could see famine conditions unless a humanitarian aid plan is put in place.
The World Food Programme has cautioned that almost 1.5 million people in Port-au-Prince are facing emergency levels of hunger in the country’s biggest humanitarian crisis since the 2010 earthquake, which claimed the lives of 200,000 people.
Isaac said much will depend on the reaction of gang leaders in the coming hours to the news of Henry’s resignation.
LISTEN: Have Haiti’s gangs launched a coup?
Listen to a recent episode of our podcast series The Take unpacking the situation in Haiti:
In this episode:
- Harold Isaac, freelance journalist
Next gov’t must not replicate ‘bad governance’ model
Ducena, the rights advocate in Port-au-Prince, says it’s crucial that Haiti’s next government does not duplicate the mistakes of its predecessors.
For many years, the country’s political leaders forged ties to armed groups – providing them with impunity, weapons and ammunition – as a way to stay in power, she explained.
“We hope that the next government will not use this same strategy of bad governance,” she told Al Jazeera.
The next government also must put programmes in place to support victims of years of political instability and violence in Haiti, she added. That includes allowing them to return to homes that have been taken over by armed groups, as well as reparations.
Port-au-Prince ‘holding its breath’: Rights advocate
Rosy Auguste Ducena, a lawyer and programme director at Haiti’s National Human Rights Defense Network, says the situation in Port-au-Prince remains “very tense”.
“There is still this uncertainty as the streets continue to be empty,” she told Al Jazeera in an interview on Tuesday morning from the Haitian capital.
Ducena welcomed the resignation of Henry, the prime minister, but said Haitians are waiting to see what will come next.
“Today again, we have the impression that the West Department is holding its breath because we don’t really know what’s going to happen,” she added, referring to the area where Port-au-Prince is located.
Deteriorating situation likely to force Kenya to rethink Haiti mission
As we reported previously, Haiti’s worsening insecurity is one of the reasons casting doubt on the prospects of Kenya’s Haiti mission.
“The deteriorating security situation is likely to force a rethink in Nairobi,” said Murithi Mutiga, the programme director for Africa at the International Crisis Group think-tank.
“The state seems to be crumbling from within and the security situation is much worse than when Kenya offered to lead the mission.”
WATCH: Al Jazeera films Haitians deported back across border
Al Jazeera’s Teresa Bo is on the border with Haiti as the Dominican Republic deports thousands of Haitians back to a country where security has collapsed amid gang violence and a political vacuum.
You can watch the video below:
Timeline: PM Henry’s time in power
- In July 2021, President Jovenel Moise was gunned down inside his home near Port-au-Prince. Ariel Henry took over as acting leader. He promised to organise presidential elections but in September the polls were postponed indefinitely.
- Gang violence spreads in 2023 to rural areas as the government’s presence erodes further. In October 2023, the UN Security Council agrees to send a multinational mission to Haiti, led by Kenya, to assist the Haitian police.
- Henry refuses to meet a February 2024 deadline to cede power to newly elected officials.
- On March 1, while Henry is in Kenya to try to speed up the deployment of the multinational mission, armed gangs launch a coordinated assault to remove him.
- On March 5, influential gang leader Jimmy “Barbecue” Cherizier warns of “civil war” unless Henry steps down.
- On March 11, Caribbean nations secure Henry’s resignation at an emergency meeting in Jamaica to address the spiralling instability.
Gang leaders ‘may just take the table’ in future negotiations
As Haiti prepares for new leadership, some experts question the role that heavily armed gangs, who control 80 percent of the capital, Port-au-Prince, will play.
“Even if you have a different kind of government, the reality is that you need to talk to the gangs,” Robert Fatton, a Haitian politics expert at the University of Virginia, told the Associated Press. “You can’t suppress them.”
He said officials will still have to deal with them and try to convince them to give up their weapons, “but what would be their concessions?”
Fatton noted that gangs have supremacy in terms of controlling the capital.
“If they have that supremacy, and there is no countervailing force, it’s no longer a question if you want them at the table, they may just take the table.”
WATCH: Haiti gang leader had warned of ‘genocide’ if PM returned
Jimmy “Barbecue” Cherizier, the gang leader behind an armed uprising in Haiti, had said there will be a civil war if Henry returned.
Watch the report below:
Will an international security mission be launched in Haiti?
Worsening insecurity and uncertainty about financing are casting doubt on the prospect of an international security mission in Haiti.
Kenya’s government, which first pledged to lead an international security mission last July, signed an agreement with Henry on March 1. But Henry has since resigned and Kenyan opposition leaders say the existing plan is unlawful as it is not reciprocal, given that Haiti’s parliament is currently unable to meet.
One major challenge is financing. Kenya has asked to be paid the costs of the deployment upfront, but UN rules require that funds it administers be used only to reimburse costs already incurred, according to a diplomat based in Nairobi and UN officials interviewed by Reuters news agency.
Kenya would therefore need to find a country willing to pay it directly. It is not clear whether that money could cover some or all of the Kenyan government’s requests. Kenya has pledged 1,000 officers to a mission that experts expect could have up to 5,000 personnel.
Cherizier threatens hotel owners for sheltering politicians close to Henry
Cherizier says he wants to transform Haiti and that is why, he says, he is threatening hotel owners in the capital for sheltering politicians close to Henry.
“We don’t want to give you lies, we’re not in a peaceful revolution, we’re making a bloody revolution in the country, because this system is an apartheid system, a wicked system,” the leader of the G9 gang federation, one of the groups that has taken over the streets of Port-au-Prince, said.
“Woe betide anyone who hides a politician who collaborates with Ariel Henry in their hotels.”
WATCH: The moment Wyclef Jean sang ‘Ariel gotta go’ on Al Jazeera
Haitian musician Wyclef Jean had joined calls for the removal of Haiti’s PM following increasing violence in the country.
The Grammy award-winning artist shared his message in a song that he sang for Al Jazeera.
Watch the report below:
Who is Jimmy ‘Barbecue’ Cherizier?
Haitian gang leader Jimmy “Barbecue” Cherizier, who heads the so-called “G9 Family and Allies” gang alliance, has emerged as the main spokesman for the uprising against Henry.
A former officer of the Haitian National Police (HNP), Cherizier has been linked to various human rights violations and deadly attacks on civilians, according to multiple media reports, international observers and rights groups.
He has presented himself as a revolutionary, fighting a system of inequality and the elites who control it. But the gang leader is accused of abuses dating back to his days with the security forces, including a 2018 massacre in the Port-au-Prince neighbourhood of La Saline that killed dozens.
In 2022, the UN Security Council voted unanimously to impose an assets freeze and a global travel ban on Cherizier.
Uncertainty around timing of additional funds to Haiti
It is unclear how long it will take for additional funding pledged by the US to be approved by lawmakers and transferred to Haiti.
On Monday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the US would contribute an additional $100m to an international security force and $33m in humanitarian aid, bringing the US total pledge to $300m.
A UN spokesperson said as of Monday, less than $11m had been deposited into the UN’s dedicated trust fund – with no new contributions since Haiti declared its state of emergency on March 3.
Mexico’s foreign minister also said the country contributed an unspecified amount of funds and called for more action to stem the trafficking of arms to Haiti.
WATCH: Haiti’s PM Henry agrees to resign amid gang violence
Gang violence unlikely to stop after Henry’s resignation
Rosa Freedman, professor of law, conflict, and global development at the University of Reading in the UK, says the formation of a transitional council is unlikely to stop gang violence in Haiti.
“The gangs were calling for the resignation of Ariel Henry but that doesn’t mean they will stop the violence now,” Freedman told Al Jazeera. “They are looking for their own power, their own money, and to cause chaos and misery.”
“This was not a popular uprising against Henry but gang violence within a huge power vacuum caused by decades of instability and foreign interference.”