New Haiti PM sworn in, promising to ‘restore security’

PORT-AU-PRINCE - Businessman Alix Didier Fils-Aime was sworn in as Haiti’s new prime minister on Nov 11, promising to restore security and tackle gang violence in the crisis-wracked country.

Mr Fils-Aime replaced Mr Garry Conille, who was appointed in May, as a gun attack on a low-cost American airliner coming in to land in the capital illustrated the enormity of his challenge.

“We have a transition with lots of work to do: The first essential job, which is a condition for success, is restoring security,” Mr Fils-Aime said in his first remarks.

He said he was aware of Haiti’s “difficult circumstances” but promised to put “all of my energy, my skills and my patriotism at the service of the national cause”.

The challenges awaiting him are daunting, as evidenced by the drama in the skies over the capital city.

Low-cost American carrier Spirit Airlines said that a flight from Florida

was hit by gunfire

while trying to land at Port-au-Prince on Nov 11 and had to be diverted to the Dominican Republic.

One flight attendant suffered minor injuries and was being evaluated by medical staff, the airline said in a statement, while images posted online appeared to show several bullet holes inside the cabin. No passengers were injured.

The airport in Port-au-Prince has grounded all commercial flights, the Miami Herald reported, while American Airlines announced it was suspending its service between Miami and the Haitian capital until Nov 14.

The International Air Transport Association, a trade group representing airlines, said it “strongly condemns recent attacks on civil aviation in Haiti, underscoring the urgent need for robust security measures to protect air operations”.

It stressed how the disorder threatened “the movement of goods and humanitarian aid critical for the Haitian people”.

Political turmoil

After being named just five months ago, outgoing premier Conille was ousted by the nine-member transitional council on Nov 10.

He has questioned the authority of the council to sack him, and the row threatens to create more instability in Haiti, which has been without a president since

the assassination of leader Jovenel Moise

in 2021.

There is no sitting Parliament, either, and the last elections were held in 2016.

The Caribbean nation has long struggled with political instability, poverty, natural disasters and gang violence.

But conditions sharply worsened at the end of February when armed groups launched coordinated attacks in the capital Port-au-Prince, saying they wanted to overthrow then Prime Minister Ariel Henry.

Unelected and unpopular, Mr Henry stepped down amid the turmoil, handing power to the transitional council, which has US and regional backing.

Despite the arrival of a Kenyan-led police support mission, violence has continued to soar.

A recent UN report said more than 1,200 people were killed in Haiti from July to September, with persistent kidnappings and sexual violence against women and girls.

Gang violence

Responding to the latest political instability, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres urged all sides in Haiti to “work constructively” together to ensure the integrity of the transition process, his spokesman said on Nov 11.

“It’s not for the Secretary-General to choose who will be the prime minister of Haiti,” said spokesman Stephane Dujarric. “What is important is that Haitian political leaders put the interests of Haiti first and foremost.”

Gangs in recent years have taken over about 80 per cent of the capital Port-au-Prince, as any semblance of governance evaporated.

The UN report said the gangs were digging trenches, using drones and stockpiling weapons as they change tactics to confront the Kenyan-led police force.

Gang leaders have strengthened defences for the zones they control and placed gas cylinders and Molotov cocktail bombs ready to use against police operations.

More than 700,000 people – half of them children – have fled their homes because of the gang violence, according to the International Organisation for Migration. AFP