Haiti PM resigns: What will happen next?
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00:00 Well, let's discuss the very latest then. I'm joined here on set by International Affairs editor Philip Turrell.
00:04 Philip, do we know at this stage what exactly has been agreed?
00:07 Right, what we do know is that there is a transition council we're just hearing about.
00:11 There's going to be two observers in that transition council and seven voting members who will then appoint an interim prime minister.
00:18 Unsure whether or not Ariel Henry will remain in the post until then, but he has now officially resigned,
00:24 which was, of course, one of the key demands of the armed gangs in Haiti that he should step down from power
00:31 and they would stop or wind down their attacks in the country. We'll have to see whether or not that happens.
00:37 There are also other measures that have been advanced, put forward by Anthony Blinken, the US Secretary of State.
00:44 He said that there'll be $100 million worth of additional money to finance the deployment of a multinational force in Haiti.
00:52 The creation of a special college to take what he called concrete steps for the deployment of that force,
00:57 which will be led by Kenya, with a doubling of support by the US Defense Department.
01:01 Now, you have to remember that Ariel Henry actually did go to Kenya to try to drum up that international force
01:08 to come in and put an end to the violence in the country. That is why he wasn't allowed back into Haiti afterwards.
01:14 He's been in Puerto Rico since then, unable to return home basically because the airport is under siege and the main ports are blocked.
01:21 Now, what is going to happen to Ariel Henry remains unclear. The US is saying he can remain in Puerto Rico,
01:27 Puerto Rico, which is a territory of the United States for the time being,
01:32 but it doesn't look as though he's going to return back to Haiti anytime soon, even though he said that is one of his objectives.
01:41 And it's unclear how this peacekeeping force is going to be drawn up and exactly what its role is going to be,
01:49 bearing in mind the fact that a peacekeeping force that goes into Haiti could very quickly,
01:53 if the violence isn't quelled, be perceived as being an occupation force.
01:58 And that's something certainly I don't think that anybody in Haiti wants to see happening.
02:02 Have we had any reaction at all from the armed groups to this?
02:05 Well, there have been there has been some reaction so far.
02:08 There's the leader of one of the biggest armed groups. His name is Jimmy Chirizier.
02:13 He's best known as Barbecue. That's his street name.
02:18 He said that he's not in favour of these international efforts to calm down the situation in Haiti.
02:25 He says that we Haitians have to decide who is going to be the head of the country and what model of government we want.
02:32 So that doesn't look too inspiring so far for the moment as to exactly what the armed gangs are going to do.
02:39 I think the pressure is now shifting from Ariel Henry's shoulders onto the armed gang shoulder saying, OK, look, armed gang,
02:44 we have got rid of the prime minister for you. That is one of your key demands.
02:49 You have always deemed him to be someone who is illegitimate, who is corrupt.
02:53 Now he's out of the picture. It's up to you now to come forward to move forward with us in some kind of negotiating way
03:01 to pull Haiti out of the extremely bad crisis it's in at the moment.
03:05 Just to give you some ideas about what's happened since the 29th of February,
03:09 the government have burned police stations, closed the main international airports, raided the country's two biggest prisons.
03:14 Four thousand inmates have been freed. The main port in Port-au-Prince is closed.
03:20 That means that ships bringing food into the country, 50 percent of food is imported into Haiti.
03:26 They are blocked. They can't get into the country, which has raised even more fears about starvation and hunger in Haiti.
03:32 Four point seven million people are said to be suffering from acute food shortages in Haiti.
03:38 So the pressure is absolutely immense on the shoulders of all concerned to find some kind of solution and some kind of way out.
03:44 But the question still remains, Stuart, and that is the main question here is how will government representatives,
03:50 opposition groups, private sector, civil society, religious groups and the armed gangs all get together around the negotiating table?
03:59 And how will they hammer out together and be in agreement about just how Haiti is going to move forward under this new transitional council?