Haiti Police Hunt Down President's Assassins As Uncertainty Grows

PortauPrince, July 8 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 8th Jul, 2021 ) :Haitian police hunted Thursday for more gunmen behind the assassination of President Jovenel Moise after killing or capturing six "mercenaries," with the nation under a state of siege.

With the streets of the capital Port-au-Prince tense, and shops, banks and gas stations closed, the poorest country in the Americas lurched close to chaos.

It now has no president or working parliament, and two men claim to be in charge as prime minister. Gangs that regularly kidnap people for ransom control parts of Port-au-Prince.

There was no immediate information on who killed the president or why, or who may have ordered the assassination.

The capital's airport was closed, as was the border with the Dominican Republic. The two countries share the island of Hispaniola.

Security forces engaged in a shootout with the suspected assailants in the capital early on Wednesday after the overnight attack at the president's private residence.

Four gunmen were killed by police, and two more taken into custody, while other members of the hit squad are at large, police chief Leon Charles said.

The country is observing two weeks of mourning for the death of Moise.

"Jovenel Moise was not terribly popular but he was the president. He cannot be killed as if he were just an ordinary citizen," said a 55-year-old man in Port-au-Prince who gave his name only as Paul.

- Where was his security? - A 28-year-old woman named Julia said she was wary of the police claims that foreign mercenaries killed the president.

"Where were the well-equipped police who watch over the president night and day? Why didn't they react?" she asked.

In the Petionville neighborhood of the capital on Thursday, a crowd brought two men to a police station and called for them to be lynched.

In total, four men said to be in on the killing were being held at the police station but it was not confirmed that they were actually suspects in the assassination.

Interim Prime Minister Claude Joseph declared a national "state of siege" and said he was now in charge.

Joseph has only been in his post as prime minister for three months, and was due to step down within days after Moise named a replacement on Monday.

Joseph's replacement, Ariel Henry, said Joseph "is no longer prime minister in my opinion.""Does a country have several prime ministers?" asked Henry.