Demonstrations have paralyzed the country amid calls for the removal of Ariel Henry, in accordance with the political agreement reached in 2022.
Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry called for calm in a public speech as violent protests erupted across the country demanding his resignation.
Henry's brief speech did little to appease thousands of Haitians angry and frustrated by rising gang violence and deepening poverty with no general election in sight.
“I think the time has come for all of us to come together to save Haiti, to do things differently in our country,” Henry said Thursday without elaborating.
He encouraged Haitians not to see the government or the national police as their enemies. Those who choose violence, destruction and murder to seize power “are not working in the interest of the Haitian people,” he added.
The legislature is empty after the terms of its last 10 senators expired in January 2023. The country was unable to hold elections scheduled in 2019 and 2023, and Henry took power with the support of the international community following the assassination of the president Jovenel Moise in July 2021.
Under a December 2022 agreement, Henry was supposed to hold elections and pass power to newly elected officials on February 7 of this year.
A day after that deadline, Henry promised to hold a general election as soon as the country's security problems are resolved and congratulated the police for their efforts in the fight against gangs, promising that he would continue to push for the deployment of a police force. Kenya supported by the United Nations.
“I want to assure everyone that the government will do everything possible to make the mission happen as quickly as possible,” he said.
Thousands of people have held daily protests this week calling for Henry's ouster and warned they would continue taking to the streets until he resigns.
February 7 is an important day in Haiti's history. On this date in 1986, former dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier fled to France, and in 1991, Jean-Betrand Aristide, Haiti's first democratically elected president, was sworn in.
Henry has remained in power and an aide said the prime minister intends to form a national unity government.
On Wednesday, five agents from an environmental agency, an armed government office now in open rebellion, were killed in a shootout with national police in the capital, Port-au-Prince.
Lionel Lazarre, head of Synapoha's police union, told The Associated Press news agency that environmental officers had opened fire after police asked them to drop their weapons, prompting the officers to fire.
Last week, Henry asked the agency to register with the Ministry of Environment in an apparent offensive against the body.
In recent weeks, former coup leader Guy Philippe, who was repatriated to Haiti late last year after spending about six years in a U.S. prison, has also been rallying supporters of a “revolution” against Henry's government. .
