Haiti’s Political Crisis Deepens as Transitional Council Sacks Prime Minister

Haiti’s transitional council has issued a decree removing interim Prime Minister Garry Conille, Al Jazeera reports.

The council, which was established in April to guide the country out of years of instability and surging gang violence, appointed Conille just three months ago.

The decree, signed by eight of the council’s nine members, appoints businessman Alix Didier Fils-Aime as the new prime minister. The council has been embroiled in internal disputes, with Conille and council president Leslie Voltaire clashing over cabinet reshuffles and the removal of three council members implicated in a bribery scandal.

Last month, Haitian anticorruption investigators accused council members Smith Augustin, Emmanuel Vertilaire, and Louis Gerald Gilles of demanding a $750,000 bribe from a government bank director to secure his position. The scandal has eroded public trust in the council, which was already facing criticism for its lack of progress.

While the three accused council members were among those who signed the decree, one member, Edgard Leblanc Fils, did not. The legitimacy of the council’s action remains in question, with some experts arguing that it lacks the authority to remove Conille.

This latest political upheaval comes as Haiti struggles with a devastating humanitarian crisis fueled by rampant gang violence. Armed groups control over 80% of the capital, Port-au-Prince, and have been using murder, kidnapping, and sexual violence to consolidate their power.

The violence has left a devastating impact on the Haitian population, with the United Nations warning that nearly half of all Haitians are experiencing acute food insecurity. Over 700,000 people, many of them children, have been displaced from their homes.

Despite the deployment of a multinational, UN-backed policing mission led by Kenya, the gangs remain a powerful force. The mission, which was deployed earlier this year, has yet to make a significant impact on the violence.