Crisis in Haiti: Prime Minister resigns Lufthansa expects 1,000 flights to be canceled: another strike is coming

A seven-member presidential council will now be established to lead the transition to elections and appoint a new interim prime minister, as Guyanese President Mohamed Irfaan Ali recently announced following a meeting of the heads of government of the Caribbean states in Jamaica. Once that happens, he will resign, Henry said. Powerful criminal gangs that control large parts of Haiti and almost all of the capital Port-au-Prince had called for his resignation.

Henry took over the leadership of the government in Haiti as interim prime minister on July 20, 2021, about two weeks after the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse. Moïse had elected him the seventh Prime Minister of his term less than 36 hours before his death. However, Henry had not yet taken office before the assassination attempt.

Under the auspices of the 74-year-old neurosurgeon, the elections were postponed several times due to the security situation and have not yet been rescheduled. The poor Caribbean state, which is not even as big as Brandenburg and has a population of about eleven million, currently has no elected national officials – neither a president nor a parliament.

According to the United Nations, criminal gangs controlled about 80 percent of Port-au-Prince even before the current wave of violence began. The situation has completely escalated since the end of February and a national state of emergency is now in force. The two most powerful gangs joined forces and demanded Henry’s resignation – otherwise a civil war would break out, threatened the gang leader Jimmy Chérizier alias “Barbecue”. Bandits paralyzed large parts of Haiti with their violence: they attacked police stations and airports, among other things, and there have been no flights to and from Haiti for over a week. More than 4,500 prisoners were also forcibly released from prison. Diplomats from the EU and the US, as well as the German ambassador, have now left Haiti.

The latest escalation of events coincided with Henry’s trip abroad to Guyana and then, on March 1, to Kenya; the East African country had agreed to lead a UN Security Council-approved security mission in Haiti. He last flew to Puerto Rico on March 5 after the Dominican Republic, which borders Haiti, denied him permission to land. Dominican President Luis Abinader declared Henry persona non grata for security reasons.

The pressure on Henry to resign from office increased. The United States, which many Haitians and political experts say has kept Henry in power, called on him to accelerate the political transition toward elections. On Monday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken attended the CARICOM meeting in Kingston and spoke of an intolerable situation for Haitians. According to Guyana’s President Ali, the Presidential Council now to be established should consist of representatives of Haitian society and politics. (sda/dpa)