ALBAWABA - Haiti's unelected Prime Minister Ariel Henry said that he will be stepping down once a transition council and temporary replacement have been appointed.
In a video, Henry said: "The government that I am leading will resign immediately after the installation of (a transition) council. I want to thank the Haitian people for the opportunity I had been granted".
With the drastic escalation in the security situation in his home country, Henry remains stranded in Puerto Rico while regional leaders called for a swift transition of power.
Henry traveled back in February to Kenya in hopes of securing its support for a United Nations-backed security mission to help police and has not been able to enter Haiti ever since.
The Biden administration has asked Henry to back a power transition as the crisis worsens. Last weekend, criminals set fire to the Interior Ministry overnight and targeted police stations and government offices in the city.
A senior US official said Henry had the freedom to stay in Puerto Rico or travel elsewhere, but security in Haiti needed to improve before he felt safe returning home. The official stated that the resignation had been decided on Friday.
Caribbean Community (CARICOM) chair and Guyanese President Irfaan Ali said: "We acknowledge his resignation upon the establishment of a transitional presidential council and naming an interim prime minister,".
Henry will be replaced by a presidential council made up of two observers and seven voting members, including representatives from various alliances, the private sector, civil society, and one religious leader.
The council has been instructed to appoint an interim prime minister as soon as possible; anyone planning to run in Haiti's upcoming elections would be barred from doing so.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said earlier Monday that the council would be assigned with meeting Haitians' "immediate needs," allowing the security mission to deploy, and creating the security circumstances required for democratic elections.
Haiti declared a state of emergency early this month after clashes disrupted communications and resulted in two prison breakouts after Jimmy "Barbeque" Cherizier, the leader of an alliance of armed cannibal gangs, stated that they would unite and replace Henry.
"We're not in a peaceful revolution. We are making a bloody revolution in the country because this system is an apartheid system, a wicked system," Cherizier said.
