Haiti's Presidential Transitional Council has decided to dismiss Prime Minister Garry Conille, who has been in office for only five months, according to the official journal published this Monday. He was appointed at the beginning of June to try to stabilize the country which continues to sink into chaos, particularly due to gang violence. He is replaced by Alix Didier Fils-Aimé but Garry Conille contests this decision.
A serious political crisis has just begun in Haiti, within the Transitional Transition Council itself. It is a resolution, adopted by eight members of the Council out of nine, on Friday, November 8 and published in the Official Journal, which ignited the powder. Only Edgard Leblanc Fils abstained. This resolution states that the members of the Council make the choice by consensus of Alix Didier Fils-Aimé as Prime Minister.
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©Haiti Olympic Games
Alix Didier Fils-Aimé is a businessman, former candidate for the Senate. He should be appointed this Monday but Garry Conille refuses to give up his place. In an official statement, the sacked Prime Minister contests a decision “taken outside of any legal and conventional framework”. He affirms that if he can appoint a Prime Minister, there is no text allowing the Transition Council to dismiss him.
Any attempt at institutional destabilization at this precise moment is nothing other than a maneuver which further weakens our country and seriously compromises our chances of overcoming this crisis. /… / I am ready to continue this fight for the stability of our country, to defend legality and to challenge any illegal actions motivated by narrow political interests which only add to the suffering of our people.
Garry Conille, Prime Minister
The decision to remove Mr. Conille from his position comes after weeks of conflict between the leader and the transition council. The council wanted to change the heads of the ministries of Justice, Finance, Defense and Health, against the advice of the Prime Minister, according to the Miami Herald newspaper. Haiti has suffered from chronic political instability for decades. But in recent months, the country has also had to face a resurgence of gang violence, which controls 80% of the capital Port-au-Prince.
After the resignation of controversial Prime Minister Ariel Henry in April, transitional authorities were put in place, with the heavy task of restoring security and organizing elections.
A 58-year-old doctor who was already Prime Minister of Haiti for six months between 2011 and 2012, Garry Conille was appointed by this Presidential Transitional Council.
But the situation continues to worsen despite the establishment of the multinational police support mission. Supported by the UN and the United States, this mission led by Kenya began to deploy this summer with just over 400 men arriving in this Caribbean country so far. On Thursday, the United Nations warned of worsening hunger levels in the country.
The wave of violence and a catastrophic humanitarian situation have forced more than 700,000 people, half of them children, to flee their homes to find refuge elsewhere in the country, according to the latest figures from the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
