New PM in hospital after asthma attack
PORT-AU-PRINCE: Haiti’s new prime minister, Garry Conille, was rushed to hospital on Saturday following “a slight illness” but was in a stable condition, a government statement said.
“After a week of intense activity,” Conille “suffered a slight illness on the afternoon of Saturday June 8, 2024, and went to hospital for treatment,” the statement by the prime minister’s press office said late in the evening.
“His condition is currently stable,” it added.
A government source, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP earlier that the prime minister had suffered an “asthma attack” and would possibly be transported out of the country for treatment.
Mr Conille, 58, was appointed to the premiership by Haiti’s Presidential Transitional Council on May 29 and was sworn in only last Monday.
A medical doctor by training, Mr Conille had served as Haiti’s premier for a short period in 2011-2012, and was until recently regional director for UN aid agency Unicef.
The job before him is monumental: to relieve the political, security and humanitarian crises devastating the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere and to pave the way for the first elections since 2016.
Since his appointment, he has been holding a series of meetings with stakeholders and representatives, while working with the Council on forming a cabinet.
The press office statement said Conille thanked the Presidential Councillors for visiting him in hospital and that he “welcomes the public’s expressions of affection.”
Gang violence has long wracked Haiti, but at the end of February armed groups launched coordinated attacks on strategic sites in Port-au-Prince, claiming they wanted to overthrow the unelected and unpopular prime minister Ariel Henry.
Mr Henry, who had been running the country since the assassination of president Jovenel Moise in 2021, eventually agreed to resign and hand over power to the nine-member transitional council.
Before his collapse on Saturday, Mr Conille visited the international airport in Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince, praising the efforts of the security forces which had enabled flights to resume after being halted for more than three months due to gang attacks.
The violence has severely affected food security and humanitarian access, with much of the capital in the hands of gangs accused of abuses including murder, rape, looting and kidnappings.
Last year, a UN-backed security force to be led by Kenya was promised as a boost to the struggling Haitian police, but its deployment has been repeatedly delayed.
Kenya’s president said in late May that the force could be ready to deploy in the coming weeks.