Businessman Alix Didier Fils-Aime was sworn in
as Haiti’s new prime minister on Monday as a gun attack on a passenger jet at
the capital's airport underscored the utter breakdown in law and order in the
Caribbean country.
Fils-Aime replaced outgoing premier Garry
Conille, who was appointed in May but became embroiled in a power struggle with
the unelected transitional council tasked with stabilising the crisis-wracked
nation.
"We have a transition with lots of work to do: the first essential job, which is a condition for success, is restoring security," Fils-Aime said in his first remarks.
He said he was aware of Haiti's "difficult circumstances"
but promised to put "all of my energy, my skills and my patriotism at the
service of the national cause."
The challenges awaiting him are daunting, as evidenced by the drama in the skies over the capital city.
Kenyan police are in
Haiti to help stabilize the country from gangs. There are 400 police officers
in Haiti and have been joined by pockets of others from the Bahamas, Jamaica and
Belize.
More than 600 others are set to be sent to Haiti
by the end of November.
Low-cost American carrier Spirit Airlines said
that a flight from Florida was hit by gunfire while trying to land at
Port-au-Prince on Monday and had to be diverted to the neighbouring Dominican
Republic, local media said.
One flight attendant suffered minor injuries and
was being evaluated by medical staff, the airline said in a statement, while
images posted online appeared to show several bullet holes inside the cabin.
No passengers were hurt.
The airport in Port-au-Prince has grounded all
commercial flights, the Miami Herald reported, while American Airlines
announced it was suspending its service between Miami and the Haitian capital
until Thursday.
The International Air Transport Association
(IATA), a trade group representing airlines, said it "strongly condemns
recent attacks on civil aviation in Haiti, underscoring the urgent need for
robust security measures to protect air operations".
It stressed how the disorder threatened
"the movement of goods and humanitarian aid critical for the Haitian
people."
After being named just five months ago, outgoing premier Conille was ousted by the nine-member transitional council on Sunday.
He has questioned the authority of the council
to sack him, and the row threatens to create more instability in Haiti, which
has been without a president since the assassination of leader Jovenel Moise in
2021.
There is no sitting parliament either, and the
last elections were held in 2016.
The Caribbean nation has long struggled with
political instability, poverty, natural disasters and gang violence.
But conditions sharply worsened at the end of February when armed groups launched coordinated attacks in the capital, saying they wanted to overthrow then-prime minister Ariel Henry.
Despite the arrival of a Kenyan-led police
support mission, violence has continued to soar.
A recent United Nations report said more than
1,200 people were killed in Haiti from July through September, with persistent
kidnappings and sexual violence against women and girls.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged all
sides in Haiti to "work constructively" together to ensure the
integrity of the transition process, his spokesman said Monday.
"It's not for the Secretary-General to
choose who will be the prime minister of Haiti," said spokesman Stephane
Dujarric.
"What is important is that Haitian political leaders put the interests of Haiti first and foremost," he said.
Gangs in recent years have taken over about 80
percent of the capital Port-au-Prince as any semblance of government
evaporated.
The UN report said the gangs were digging
trenches, using drones and stockpiling weapons as they change tactics to
confront the Kenyan-led police force.
Gang leaders have strengthened defences for the
zones they control and placed gas cylinders and Molotov cocktail bombs ready to
use against police operations.
More than 700,000 people -- half of them
children -- have fled their homes because of the gang violence, according to
the International Organization for Migration.
The U.N. Human Rights Office in Port-au-Prince
said nearly 4,900 people have been killed between January and September.
