PRINCE PORT – Garry Conille was appointed new Prime Minister of Haiti on Tuesday, almost a month after a coalition within a divided transitional council had chosen another person for the position.
The long-awaited decision was announced while the gangs They continue to terrorize the capital, Port-au-Prince, opening fire in once peaceful neighborhoods and using heavy machinery to demolish several police stations and prisons.
Transitional council member Louis Gérald Gilles reported that six of the seven voting council members chose Conille on Tuesday. Gilles indicated that one of the council members, Laurent St. Cyr, was not in Haiti and, therefore, did not vote.
Conille, UNICEF’s regional director for Latin America and the Caribbean, served as prime minister of Haiti between October 2011 and May 2012, under then-president Michel Martelly. Conille replaces Michel Patrick Boisvert, who had been named interim prime minister following the resignation of Ariel Henry, which was given by letter at the end of April.
“Coordinated attacks”
Henry was on an official trip in Kenya when a coalition of gangs launched coordinated attacks on February 29, taking control of police stations, opening fire at Haiti’s main airport and overrunning the country’s two main prisons, freeing more than 4,000 inmates.
Henry was unable to return to the country due to the attacks, and the airport in the capital, Port-au-Prince, was closed for almost three months.
While Conille takes the reins of the troubled Caribbean country while awaiting the deployment of a police force from Kenya and other countries—and backed by the UN—the violence The number of gangs continues to increase in some areas of the Haitian capital and outside it.
In addition to electing a new prime minister, the council is also responsible for selecting a new cabinet and holding a general election late next year.
Source: With information from AP
