PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) – Residents of Port-au-Prince, the Haitian capital, prepared for another night of tensions on Friday as attacks continued in some neighborhoods of the city, despite the resignation of the Prime Minister Ariel Henry.
“Ariel Henry resigned, but political disarray persists,” said Claude Atilus, a resident of Port-au-Prince. “We must take our destiny into our own hands. I want political actors to rise to the occasion and commit to organizing the country.”
Burning tires and roadblocks lined the streets of the town of Delmas, located in the district of Port-au-Prince.
“The situation is not good for us,” said Jean-Phillipe Jean-Louis, a merchant in the capital who said he was exhausted, prices were exorbitant and it was dangerous to work in the streets.
“When we merchants go out into the streets to earn money to feed our children and women, we find nothing,” he said.
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) reported that hunger and malnutrition had reached a record high in Haiti and that one in four children in the country were chronically malnourished or stunted.
Satellite images on Thursday showed containers blocking access to cranes at the country’s main commercial port, closed since a burglary.
Local media reported that police confronted gang members late Friday in Delmas, a stronghold of the G9 alliance led by Jimmy Chérizier, known as “Barbecue.”
Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who came to power without being elected following the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in the summer of 2021, said Monday he would leave office once a transition council is established. place and that an interim leader would be appointed.
Jimmy Chérizier this week threatened the politicians who make up the transition council, believing that the resignation of Ariel Henry only constituted “a first step forward in the battle” for the country.
Local newspaper Gazette Haiti reported that meetings aimed at finding a compromise were to be held on Saturday.
(Jefferson Philogene and Harold Isaac in Port-au-Prince, Michelle Nichols at the United Nations and Sarah Morland in Mexico; French version Camille Raynaud)
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