Haiti’s Prime Minister Garry Coniel was fired by the country’s governing council less than six months after taking office.
The executive order, signed by eight of the council’s nine members, names businessman and former Haitian Senate candidate Alix Didier Fissuéme to replace Conil.
Conil, a former United Nations official, was brought in to lead Haiti amid an ongoing gang-led security crisis and was expected to pave the way for the country’s first presidential election since 2016.
In a letter seen by Reuters, he said his expulsion was illegal and raised “grave concerns” about Haiti’s future.
Haiti currently has neither a president nor a parliament, and according to the constitution, only the latter can remove the incumbent prime minister.
Mr. Coneil was sworn into office on June 3.
“This resolution departs from any legal or constitutional framework, raising serious concerns about its legitimacy,” Coneil’s letter said.
Haiti’s Transitional Presidential Council (TPC) was formed in April after Conil’s predecessor, Ariel Henry, was forced from office by a gang network that had taken over parts of the capital, Port-au-Prince.
Henry left Haiti on February 25, 2024, to attend a summit in Guyana, but gang members later occupied the city’s international airport, preventing him from returning home.
TPC was tasked with restoring democratic order to this violence-riddled Caribbean country.
More than 3,600 people have been killed and more than 500,000 displaced since January in Haiti, which ranks it as one of the world’s poorest countries, according to the United Nations.
Two million Haitians are currently facing emergency levels of hunger, and nearly half of the population “doesn’t have enough to eat,” according to United Nations data.
One of the country’s most powerful gang leaders, Jimmy Sheridier, also known as Barbecue, has previously said he is prepared to end the violence if armed groups are allowed to participate in talks to form a new government.
Haiti’s last presidential election was eight years ago, when Tete Carre’s Jouvenel Moïse won.
The post of president has been vacant since he was killed in July 2021.
Haitian gangs are taking advantage of the power vacuum to expand their control across virtually lawless areas of the country.
Last month, it was reported that hundreds of police officers were sent from Kenya to Haiti, with more expected to join in November.
