Haitian Prime Minister Garry Conille Ousted Amid Ongoing Crisis

Haitian Prime Minister Garry Conille has been fired by the country’s ruling council just less than six months after he took office.

An executive order, signed by eight of the council’s nine members, named businessman and former Haiti Senate candidate, Alix Didier Fils-Aime as Conille’s replacement.

Conille who is a former United Nations official, was brought in to lead Haiti through an ongoing, gang-led security crisis and had been expected to help pave the way for the country’s first presidential elections since 2016.

The sacked Prime Minister described his ousting as illegal, saying in a letter that it raised “serious concerns” about Haiti’s future.

“This resolution, taken outside any legal and constitutional framework, raises serious concerns about its legitimacy,” Conille’s letter was quoted as saying.

Haiti currently has neither a president nor parliament and, according to its constitution, only the latter can sack a sitting prime minister.

Conille was sworn in on 3 June as Haiti edged towards holding its first elections since 2016.

Haiti’s transitional presidential council (TPC) was created in April after Ariel Henry, Conille’s predecessor, was forced from office by a network of gangs that had taken over parts of the capital Port-au-Prince.

Henry had left Haiti to attend a summit in Guyana on 25 February, 2024 when gang members seized the city’s international airport, preventing him from returning.

The TPC was tasked with restoring democratic order to the Caribbean country, where such violence is rife.

More than 3,600 people have been killed in Haiti since January and more than 500,000 have had to leave their homes, according to the UN, which describes Haiti as one of the poorest countries in the world.

UN data shows that over two million Haitians currently face emergency levels of hunger, while almost half the population “do not have enough to eat”.

One of the country’s most powerful gang leaders, Jimmy Chérizier, also known as Barbecue, previously said he was prepared to end the violence if armed groups were allowed to be involved in talks to establish a new government.

Presidential elections were last held in Haiti eight years ago when Jovenel Moïse of the Tèt Kale party was elected.

Since his murder in July 2021, the post of president has been vacant.

Gangs in Haiti have capitalised on the power vacuum to expand their control over swathes of the country, which has effectively been rendered lawless in some places.