On April 25, 2024, amid a country riven by violence, the long-awaited transitional ruling council was inaugurated and Ariel Henry, the prime minister of Haiti the impoverished Caribbean state, formally resigned.
Following months of upheaval caused by gang warfare, the nine-member Presidential Transitional Council has been installed, symbolizing the beginning of the formation of a new administration.
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Social media posts featured the council members being welcomed to the presidential palace in Port-au-Prince with opulence. A recent interview with the leader of a party represented on the body revealed that they had taken an oath of office.
An official press invitation stated that the prime minister’s office, known as the Villa d’Accueil, will host the ceremonial inauguration event, which the council, consisting of eight males and one woman, is expected to attend.
Henry, meanwhile, expressed gratitude to the Haitians for their support and pledged in March to resign when a council was appointed. The former PM thanked the community, “for the opportunity to serve our country with integrity, wisdom and honor.”
“Haiti will be reborn,” he wrote in his resignation letter dated the previous day from Los Angeles, which was made public the day the transitional council was sworn in.
The outgoing cabinet announced that Michel Patrick Boisvert, the minister of economy, has been named as acting prime minister in the interim until a new administration is formed.
In the last several weeks, Boisvert had assumed control of certain official correspondence, while Henry was in the US and unable to return home following a trip to Kenya.
The council’s installation was repeatedly postponed due to weeks of internal strife; it is currently entrusted with preparing the nation for fresh elections by 2026.
Following a string of crises that included natural catastrophes and economic fragility, political instability in Haiti has gotten worse since President Jovenel Moise was assassinated in 2021.
The 11.6-million-person nation has not had elections since 2016 and lacks a sitting legislature.
It is unclear how the nation’s influential gangs, who have expressed resentment at their absence from transitional discussions, would react to the new council, which is composed of individuals from all political persuasions in Haiti.
Jimmy “Barbecue” Cherizier, the head of a gang that dominates areas of Port-au-Prince through his 1,000-member G9 coalition, was one of those left out.
Aid organizations are begging for assistance in Haiti as a result of the violence, which was made worse by jail escapes in February. The country is seeing a surge in poverty, malnutrition, and a shortage of medical treatment.
According to the UN, there are over 360,000 internally displaced Haitians, with 95,000 having to leave the city due to gang violence, and five million suffering from “acute hunger.”
An UN-backed team headed by Kenya was supposed to arrive in the nation last year and assist its struggling police in keeping criminal groups in check.
Kenya subsequently said that it had postponed its preparations to deploy the force until after the transitional council was established.
