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lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial | |
ARTICLE VIEW: | |
/ | |
Haiti’s transitional government names new council president, | |
proposes interim prime minister | |
By Hira Humayun and Tara John, CNN | |
Updated: | |
2:33 PM EDT, Tue April 30, 2024 | |
Source: CNN | |
A transitional council responsible for choosing Haiti’s next | |
leadership has named one of its members as council president and | |
proposed a new interim prime minister amid efforts to control the gang | |
violence in the Caribbean nation. | |
The council, which is responsible for paving the way for elections and | |
addressing the country’s deteriorating security situation, on Tuesday | |
named Edgard Leblanc Fils as its president and proposed former sports | |
minister Fritz Bélizaire as new interim prime minister. | |
The nine-member council, which was sworn in at the National Palace last | |
week, consists of seven voting members and was established with the | |
help of the Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM). It is | |
tasked with the responsibility of naming a new prime minister and | |
cabinet. | |
The committee will exercise certain presidential powers until a new | |
president-elect is inaugurated, which must take place no later than | |
February 7, 2026. | |
The country’s former prime minister, Ariel Henry, resigned last week | |
as the council was sworn in and the former finance minister, Michael | |
Patrick Boisvert, has been filling the role on a temporary basis. | |
Still to come are the tasks of appointing a new head of government and | |
a cabinet; coordinating the arrival of a multinational security force | |
to reclaim the capital; and eventually holding long-overdue elections. | |
But Haiti’s gangs maintain they deserve a seat at the negotiating | |
table. One of the gangs’ leaders, Vitel’homme Innocent, told that | |
if the gangs do not get a seat, they would try other means. | |
The gangs oppose the council, he added, saying it was more of the same, | |
and it was time for the old political elites to go – a view held by | |
many in Haiti. | |
Since February, attacks by an insurgent alliance of gangs in the | |
capital Port-au-Prince mean the city’s international airport and | |
seaport have ceased to function, breaking vital supply lines of food | |
and aid and triggering an exodus of evacuation flights for foreign | |
nationals. | |
With the city from the outside world, hospitals have been vandalized | |
while warehouses and containers storing food and essential supplies | |
have been broken into as the social fabric frays. | |
According to the UN, nearly 5 million people in Haiti are suffering | |
from acute food insecurity – defined as when a person’s inability | |
to consume adequate food poses immediate danger to their lives or | |
livelihoods. | |
This is a developing story and will be updated. | |
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