Haiti PM flees under gunfire as Haiti rings in new year

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Haiti welcomed the caller twelvemonth with unit arsenic Prime Minister Ariel Henry fled the bluish metropolis of Gonaïves pursuing a shootout betwixt his information forces and an equipped radical that had warned the person not to acceptable ft successful the city.

Local media reported that 1 idiosyncratic died and 2 were injured successful the gunfire that forced Henry and others to duck and question structure arsenic they walked retired of a cathedral Saturday aft attending a wide to observe Haiti’s independency from France.

A spokesperson for Haiti’s National Police told The Associated Press connected Monday that constabulary had secured the area.

The incidental is simply a caller stroke to Henry’s fragile interim authorities that is struggling with deepening poorness and a surge successful pack unit arsenic helium seeks to make a conjugation to assistance tally the state aft the July 7 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse, with wide elections scheduled for mid-2022.

Henry referred to the incidental successful a tweet by thanking the bishop of Gonaïves for having held the wide “despite the tense concern that was prevailing successful the city.”

The streets of Gonaïves were mostly bare and truthful was its cathedral, Saint-Charles-de-Boromé, for the accepted independency time celebrations. Henry was incapable to present his code arsenic planned aft gunfire forced him retired of the city. In 2020, Moïse skipped the travel to Gonaïves amid threats of convulsive protests.

In a connection successful Haitian Creole shared Sunday connected Twitter, Henry said, “Today, our enemies, the enemies of the Haitian people, are the terrorists who bash not hesitate to usage unit to termination radical with each their might, oregon to kidnap, instrumentality distant their freedom, to rape them. And bash everything for money.”

Henry has pledged to ace down connected gangs that authorities person blamed for a spike successful kidnappings and for blocking state organisation terminals successful a determination that caused a terrible substance shortage successful caller months and prompted the U.S. and Canada to impulse its citizens to permission Haiti.