The Haitian Prime Minister has announced the assassination of the Haitian President, Jovenel Moïse, who he said was assassinated in an attack at his private residence.
The Prime Minister described the killings as a “hateful, inhumane and barbaric act,”
The Associated Press reported that the First Lady, Martine Moïse, has been hospitalized following the overnight attack, interim Premier Claude Joseph said. The nation of more than 11 million people had grown increasingly unstable and disgruntled under Moïse.
”Joseph said in a statement from his office said .“The country’s security situation is under the control of the National Police of Haiti and the Armed Forces of Haiti.
He went on to say “Democracy and the republic will win” the streets were largely empty in the nation’s capital of Port-au-Prince, but some people ransacked businesses in one.
In the wake of events, the Police have been deployed to the National Palace and the upscale community of Pétionville and will be sent to other areas.
Joseph condemned the assassination as a “hateful, inhumane and barbaric act.” He said some of the attackers spoke in Spanish but offered no further explanation.
Haiti’s economic, political and social woes have deepened recently, with gang violence spiking heavily in the capital of Port-au-Prince, inflation spiraling and food and fuel becoming scarcer at times in a country where 60% of the population makes less than $2 a day.
Moïse, who was 53, had been ruling by decree for more than two years after the country failed to hold elections, which led to Parliament being dissolved. Opposition leaders have accused him of seeking to increase his power, including approving a decree that limited the powers of a court that audits government contracts and another that created an intelligence agency that answers only to the President.