Haitian security forces on Wednesday night killed four people suspected of assassinating President Jovenel Moïse, BBC reported. Two more suspects have been detained.
The four killed were members of a “group of mercenaries” who assassinated Moïse at his home in the early hours of Wednesday, police chief Leon Charles said. Haiti’s First Lady Martine Moïse was also shot in the incident and has been hospitalised.
“Four mercenaries were killed [and] two were intercepted under our control,” Charles said. “Three policemen who had been taken hostage have been recovered.”
Police officers are still in combat with some more suspects in the country’s capital Port-au-Price, as per the latest reports. “They [suspects] will be killed or captured,” Charles said, as reported by The Guardian.
The government has declared a two-week state of emergency to help it trace the attackers, Reuters reported.
Interim Prime Minister Claude Joseph has called for calm, and said that the situation was under control. “This barbaric act will not remain unpunished,” he added.
On Wednesday, the streets of Port-au-Prince were largely empty but some residents ransacked businesses in an area. Gunshots were also heard in some parts.
Moïse had been ruling by decree for more than two years after the country failed to hold elections and the Parliament dissolved. The president faced protests after taking to the office in 2017.
In recent months, opposition leaders had been demanding that he step down, arguing that his term legally ended in February 2021, five years after Former President Michel Martelly quit. However, the president and his followers maintain that his term started in 2017, when he assumed office.
Haiti’s economic, political and social woes have deepened recently, with gang violence spiking heavily in Port-au-Prince, reported AP. Inflation has spiralled and food and fuel have become scarcer in a context where 60% of the population makes less than $2 (approximately Rs 150) a day.
The country is also trying to recover from the devastating 2010 earthquake and Hurricane Matthew that struck in 2016. The earthquake had killed more than 2 lakh residents, while more than a thousand died in the hurricane.
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