PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — The council tasked to arrange eventual presidential elections in Haiti swore in a brand new chief Friday, because the nation retains fighting a persistent gang violence.
Fritz Alphonse Jean, an economist and former central financial institution governor, replaces Leslie Voltaire within the rotating presidency of the transitional presidential council, shaped in 2024 after a violent gang siege of the capital that pressured then Prime Minister Ariel Henry to resign.
Throughout a ceremony in Port-au-Prince, Jean described what Haiti is presently dealing with as a “battle” and requested individuals to be united to handle the safety disaster.
“Our nation is at battle right now,” he stated. “We have to be united to win this battle.”
The transitional presidential council works with Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé and, amid its duties, helps run the nation and organizing basic elections, aimed for February 2026.
The nation, and particularly the capital, face fixed gang violence. The U.N. estimates that gangs already management 85% of Port-au-Prince.
That’s regardless of the presence of a U.N.-backed mission led by Kenyan forces, which suffered a loss just a few days in the past in a combat with gang members.
The brand new chief of the transitional council requested for a minute of silence for the Haitian officers and the Kenyan police who’ve died dealing with the gangs.
U.N. Secretary-Common António Guterres has proposed opening a U.N. workplace that would supply drones, gasoline, floor and air transportation and different nonlethal help to the Kenyan-led mission.
Greater than 5,600 individuals have been reported killed throughout Haiti in 2024, or 1,000 extra deaths than reported the earlier yr, in accordance with the U.N.
