DEVELOPING HISTORYHISTORY IN DEVELOPMENT,
The announcement comes amid an emergency CARICOM summit on the crisis in Haiti.
Haiti's Prime Minister Ariel Henry has resigned, according to Mohamed Irfaan Ali, president of Guyana and current president of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM).
Henry, 74, resigned after CARICOM leaders held an emergency summit on the situation in Haiti, where gang-led violence amid repeatedly postponed elections has caused chaos.
“We acknowledge his resignation following the establishment of a transitional presidential council and the appointment of an interim prime minister,” Ali said, thanking Henry for his service.
The gang alliance, led by Jimmy “Barbecue” Cherizier, had warned of a civil war if Henry, who became prime minister after the 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moise, did not resign.
Cherizier's gangs swept in while Henry was out of the country last week, seeking to drum up support for a Kenyan-led foreign police intervention that his government had argued was necessary to restore order so elections could be held.
Henry, who was supposed to resign in February, has since been effectively banned from the country and landed in Puerto Rico last week after being denied entry to the Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti.
CARICOM's Ali said the emergency talks, which took place in Jamaica, sought to bring “stability and normality” to Haiti, the region's poorest country.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was also at the summit and pledged an additional $100 million for a United Nations-backed force to stabilize the country, as well as $30 million in humanitarian assistance.
Blinken said the meeting was “critical” for Haiti and the region.
The United States supported “a proposal developed in partnership with CARICOM and Haitian stakeholders to accelerate a political transition through the creation of an independent, broad-based presidential college,” the State Department said in a statement.
The body would be tasked with meeting the “immediate needs” of the Haitian people, allowing the deployment of the security mission and creating the security conditions necessary for free elections, Blinken said.
