Recently elected Haitian Prime Minister Garry Conille was discharged from the hospital on Sunday after spending the night undergoing treatment for an undisclosed condition, AP News reported.
Conille stated that he felt fine and was “ready” to continue helping the country emerge from the current security crisis. He promised to form a government that would also prioritise issues such as health care.
The whole time I was at the hospital, I was thinking of something: People that need to go to the general hospital can’t get there (due to widespread violence). People who need health care can’t afford it.
Gang violence is rampant in Haiti, with three police officers killed on Sunday and a fourth missing, according to Synapoha, the police union. The officers were part of a new anti-gang unit, it added.
The violence led to the closure of about 60 per cent of hospitals in the capital region. Gangs also loot and set fire to pharmacies, with doctors forced to stay home on some days to avoid dangerous clashes between gangs.
Conille arrived in Haiti on 1 June after the transitional council elected him as the country’s new prime minister. Previously, he had been working outside the country as UNICEF’s regional director for Latin America and the Caribbean.
In recent years, gangs controlling at least 80 per cent of Port-au-Prince have forced more than 360,000 people to leave their homes. They control key routes from the capital to Haiti’s northern and southern regions, often paralysing the transport of critical goods.
Conille’s predecessor, Ariel Henry, resigned in April after coordinated attacks by gangs that seized police stations and raided prisons. They also shelled the country’s main international airport while Henry was on an official trip to Kenya.
The Haitian government is now awaiting the deployment of a UN-backed police force from Kenya and other countries.
I hope that by early next week we can have a government in place. I am doing everything we can so we can get out of this crisis.
