Haiti President Jovenel Moïse killed by armed group

Haitian President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated after a group of unidentified people attacked his private residence, the country’s interim prime minister said in a statement Wednesday. Moïse’s wife, First Lady Martine Moïse, is hospitalised, interim Premier Claude Joseph said. Joseph condemned what he called a “hateful, inhumane and barbaric act,” adding that Haiti’s National Police and other authorities had the situation in the Caribbean country under control. 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.

The killing late Tuesday comes amid deepening political and economic stability and a spike in gang violence. “The president was assassinated at his home by foreigners who spoke English and Spanish,” Joseph was quoted as saying by news agency AFP. In the early morning hours of Wednesday, the streets were largely empty in the Caribbean nation's capital of Port-au-Prince, but some people ransacked businesses in one area. Joseph said police had been deployed to the National Palace and the upscale community of Petionville and would be sent to other areas.

Haiti's economic, political and social woes have deepened recently, with gang violence spiking heavily in Port-au-Prince, inflation spiralling and food and fuel becoming scarcer at times in a country where 60 per cent of the population makes less than US$2 ($2.66) a day. These troubles come as Haiti still tries to recover from the devastating 2010 earthquake and Hurricane Matthew that struck in 2016.