Fritz Belizaire is thrust into action as authorities battle gangs for control of the country in crisis.
Haiti’s transitional council has named Fritz Belizaire as the crisis-stricken Caribbean country’s new prime minister.
The council on Tuesday called on the former sports minister to replace interim prime minister Michel Patrick Boisvert. The previously low-key new prime minister faces a difficult task of trying to stabilize the island nation, which is mired in chaos as it battles violent armed gangs that have taken control of many areas.
The council had already appointed Edgard Leblanc Fils, former president of the Senate, as chairman of the panel. The appointments come after weeks of political deadlock and infighting at the council, which was convened last month following the resignation of former prime minister Ariel Henry.
Belizaire’s nomination was supported by four of the seven voting members of the nine-member panel. Other members noted that they were unfamiliar with him.
The council is also tasked with appointing a cabinet and electoral council, which is expected to pave the way for Haiti’s first general elections since 2016.
However, internal disputes within the panel delayed the process. Tensions over Tuesday’s elections threaten to dissolve the council.
“This is a very good choice for prime minister,” Fils said of Belizaire, according to the AP. “The important thing for us is this will, this determination to go beyond divisions, to overcome conflicts and to reach a consensus.”
The violence continues
Gunshots were heard across the capital, Port-au-Prince, during the council meeting, illustrating the challenge the new prime minister faces in ending the chaotic violence plaguing Haiti.
Around 4,000 inmates were freed in attacks on Haiti’s two largest prisons in February. In the midst of an orgy of violence, gangs have since wrested control from authorities in many areas and attacked infrastructure.
More than 2,500 people were killed or injured across Haiti between January and March, according to the United Nations. Almost 95 thousand people fled Port-au-Prince. People are struggling to find food and access health care with Haiti’s ports and airports closed.
“The Haitian population can no longer wait,” Louis Gerald Gilles, a member of the transition council who supported Belizaire’s nomination, told the AP. “The issue of security is essential for social calm.”
Midnight conspiracy
Yet desperately needed political stability seems far away.
The Caribbean country has not held elections for eight years and has been without a president since Jovenel Moise was assassinated in 2021.
Henry, who was not elected, was ousted after armed gangs launched a coordinated attack in February demanding his resignation.
Having been to Kenya seeking international help to end the violence at the time, he remains excluded from Haiti. He submitted his resignation last week.
The transition council will act as the country’s presidency until it is able to organize elections, which must be held by February 2026.
The announcement of Belizaire as the new prime minister may not help.
Although he served as Sports Minister between 2006 and 2011, he is not well known in the country, and the appointment, which appears to have been arranged in a behind-the-scenes deal, shocked some members of the transition council.
The Montana Accord, a civil society group that opposes the selection, said in a statement that the announcement was a “conspiracy” hatched by four council members against the Haitian people “in the middle of the night.”
The next challenge for the transition council will be to decide whether to support the UN-backed deployment of a Kenyan police force to help combat the gangs. However, it is unclear when this might happen.
This story originally appeared on Aljazeera.com read the full story
