Haiti’s prime minister Ariel Henry agreed to resign once a transitional presidential council is created amid urgent efforts to quell spiralling gang violence in the country. Kenya announced on Tuesday it would not deploy a previously organised security mission to Haiti as there is no “sitting government” to coordinate with on the ground.
Mr Henry confirmed his resignation hours after Caribbean leaders and US secretary of state Antony Blinken met in Jamaica to urgently discuss the crisis.
Mr Henry is currently in Puerto Rico and has been barred from returning to his home country. A growing number of officials in Haiti are calling for his resignation.
The country is under a state of emergency after heavily armed criminal gangs attacked major government assets across the capital Port-au-Prince in recent days and took control of the country’s main international airports.
The violence, which began on 29 February, has seen gang members burn down police stations and raid the country’s two biggest prisons, releasing more than 4,000 inmates.
Mr Henry has served as the country’s prime minister since 2021, the longest term in the unelected role since the Haitian constitution was drafted in the 1980s.