March 12, (THEWILL)- Haiti’s prime minister, Ariel Henry, has resigned amid urgent efforts to quell spiralling gang violence in the country.
Mohamed Ali, Guyana’s president and the current chair of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), confirmed the development, hours after Caribbean leaders and US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, met in Jamaica to urgently discuss the crisis.
Henry is currently in Puerto Rico and has been barred from returning to his home country.
The country is under a state of emergency after heavily armed criminal gangs attacked major government assets across the capital, Port-au-Prince, in recent days and took control of the country’s main international airports.
The violence, which began on February 29, has seen gang members burn down police stations and raid the country’s two biggest prisons, releasing more than 4,000 inmates.
Henry has served as the country’s prime minister since 2021, the longest term in the unelected role since the Haitian constitution was drafted in the 1980s
