Haiti PM touts new police chief in fight against violent gangs

AFP News
·2-min read
Haiti's police force faces the task of tackling violent gangs that have long held sway in the Caribbean nation (Clarens SIFFROY)
Haiti's police force faces the task of tackling violent gangs that have long held sway in the Caribbean nation (Clarens SIFFROY)

Haiti's Prime Minister Garry Conille said Thursday that a decision to replace the national police chief was motivated by a need to give security forces a "new lease of life" against gangs terrorizing the population.

Rameau Normil was appointed director-general of the troubled Caribbean nation's police force on Wednesday, replacing Frantz Elbe.

"We took steps to make a change at the head of the police because we felt the time was right to give the institution a new lease of life, a new energy," Conille said at a press conference.

"Confronting the challenges of insecurity is a collective responsibility. The population must feel involved in the process of restoring security," he said, promising improved communication between citizens and the police force.

Conille also said he had spoken with Kenyan authorities and that they were eager to work together, referring to a UN-backed security mission from Nairobi designed to bolster Haiti's police, which has not yet materialized.

He also said he would create a national anti-corruption strategy, noting that "up to 30 percent of state employees receive salaries while being absent, we must immediately remedy this."

Gang violence has long wracked Haiti, but the situation worsened in late February when armed groups launched attacks in capital Port-au-Prince, calling for the overthrow of unelected and unpopular prime minister Ariel Henry.

Henry announced in March he would step down and hand over power to a transitional council, which was established in late May before it named Conille as its interim leader.

About 580,000 Haitians have now fled their homes due to gang violence, a 60 percent spike just since March, the UN International Organization for Migration said on Tuesday.

strs-iba/bjt/md

  • Up next
  • Up next
  • Up next
  • Up next

Latest stories

  • South Korea is running out of children – and this country could be next

    Every spring, when warm rays of sunshine herald the start of South Korea’s baking summer, fountains across Seoul’s central Gwanghwamun plaza suddenly burst into life, sending cooling jets of water into the air.

  • As ice melts, Everest's 'death zone' gives up its ghosts

    On Everest's sacred slopes, climate change is thinning snow and ice, increasingly exposing the bodies of hundreds of mountaineers who died chasing their dream to summit the world's highest mountain.Sherpa said that bringing one body down from close to Lhotse's 8,516 metre peak -- the world's fourth-highest mountain -- had been among the hardest challenges so far.

  • Audio Of Trump Talking About Taylor Swift's Looks Is Creeping Everyone TF Out

    The former president used one word five times when describing the pop icon.

  • US Air Force member charged with kidnapping and raping Japanese schoolgirl

    Japanese prosecutors have charged a US Air Force member with allegedly kidnapping and raping an underage girl just before Christmas last year, Okinawa police confirmed to CNN on Wednesday.

  • Israel’s top court rules ultra-Orthodox Jews must be drafted into military, in blow to Netanyahu

    Israel’s Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered the government to draft ultra-Orthodox Jews into the military, delivering a blow to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that has the potential to unravel his ruling coalition.

  • The Latest | Families bid a tearful goodbye as 21 critically ill children are set to leave Gaza

    Families bid a tearful goodbye as 21 critically ill children were set to exit Gaza for treatment abroad on Thursday. It’s the first medical evacuation since the territory’s sole travel crossing shut down in early May after Israeli forces captured it, Palestinian officials say. The kids and their adult escorts left Nasser Hospital in the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis bound for the Kerem Shalom cargo crossing with Israel.

  • I salute the nurses who took a stand against this women-have-penises nonsense

    Three cheers for Bethany Hutchison, Lisa Lockey, Annice Grundy, Tracey Hooper and Joanne Bradbury. Their names are unknown as yet, but these brave nurses could easily become as significant in the annals of feminist history as the Ford Dagenham women and the Suffragettes. Supported by the Christian Legal Centre, the five nurses who work at Darlington Memorial Hospital, which comes under the control of County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust, have filed a legal action against the Trust c

  • US soldier charged in Japan for rape of minor

    The case is likely to stoke the long-standing local opposition to US military presence.

  • ‘It’s a very big secret’: the ultra-orthodox Jews shunning their families to fight in Gaza

    When he leaves the army barracks to return to his ultra-orthodox Kiryat Menchem neighbourhood in west Jerusalem, Jacov Barchaim immediately swaps his khaki uniform for a traditional black suit to avoid causing offence.

  • Biden administration moves toward allowing American military contractors to deploy to Ukraine

    The Biden administration is moving towards lifting a de facto ban on American military contractors deploying to Ukraine, four US officials familiar with the matter told CNN, to help the country’s military maintain and repair US-provided weapons systems.

  • Ex-Kuwaiti Hornets to join RMAF fleet, Su-30MKMs to be upgraded to ‘Super Flankers’ under bold, ambitious plan

    Game changer – The RMAF’s capabilities will undergo a massive transformation under a bold and ambitious new roadmap that will see the introduction of a fifth-generation stealth fighter, upgraded Su-30MKM Flankers, and additional F/A-18 Hornet strike fighters from ex-Kuwaiti stocks. The post Ex-Kuwaiti Hornets to join RMAF fleet, Su-30MKMs to be upgraded to ‘Super Flankers’ under bold, ambitious plan appeared first on Twentytwo13.

  • ‘This party should fall’: MAGA candidate who didn’t win Boebert’s old seat calls Republican Party ‘irredeemable’

    Volunteers and supporters of grassroots Colorado Republican Ron Hanks, who’d hoped to fill the congressional seat vacated by fellow MAGA diehard Lauren Boebert, gathered Tuesday night at a Grand Junction brewery for a watch party. Hanks lamented the results — and the state of the Republican Party. Sheila Flynn reports from the third congressional district

  • Paris Hilton Shares Horrific Sex Abuse Story With Congress

    Paris Hilton hasn’t given up on her advocacy for kids and teens living in allegedly abusive youth treatment facilities. On Wednesday, the reality star testified before Congress at a hearing for strengthening child welfare, telling lawmakers about the “inhumane treatment” she experienced at youth facilities as a teen, including being “force-fed medication” and being “sexually abused by the staff.”Hilton has long been an advocate for an overhaul of for-profit youth centers; in 2020, she shared her

  • Driver who crashed into Wimbledon school killing two girls will not face charges, having had an epileptic fit

    The parents of two eight-year-old girls who died said ‘justice had never been done’ and the ruling was disappointing

  • Newsmax Slaps Very Awkward Note On Screen During Donald Trump Interview

    Critics on social media suggested the chyron meant one thing.

  • US ambassador accuses China of stirring anti-American sentiment

    The United States’ ambassador to China, Nicholas Burns, is accusing Beijing of going against its agreement to repair relations between Chinese and U.S. citizens. After President Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping met last year, the duo agreed to boost engagement among regular citizens, but Burns told The Wall Street Journal that China has actively…

  • Michelle Obama Furious at Bidens for Freezing Out Hunter’s Ex

    Michelle Obama was not happy with the Biden family over the way they treated her good friend Kathleen Buhle following her divorce from Hunter Biden, according to a report.Two sources familiar with the relationship between the former first lady and the incumbent president’s family told Axios that Michelle has privately spoken about her frustrations at the manner in which the Biden clan mostly exiled Buhle when her marriage to Hunter ended. It’s partly why Michelle hasn’t been campaigning for Joe

  • Beijing backtracks on a law punishing clothing that hurts ‘the feelings of the Chinese people’ after a public outcry

    People were concerned about the law's vagueness, after reported incidents where officials targeted people wearing traditional Japanese clothing.

  • Bolivian army chief arrested after coup attempt

    Bolivia's army chief was arrested Wednesday after sending soldiers and tanks to take up position in front of government buildings in what President Luis Arce called an attempted "coup d'etat".The troops and tanks entered Plaza Murillo, a historic square where the presidency and Congress are situated, in the afternoon, prompting global condemnation of an attack on democracy.One of the tanks tried to break down a metal door of the presidential palace.Surrounded by soldiers and eight tanks, the now-dismissed army chief General Juan Jose Zuniga said the "armed forces intend to restructure democracy, to make it a true democracy and not one run by the same few people for 30, 40 years."Shortly thereafter, AFP reporters saw soldiers and tanks pulling back from the square.Later Wednesday, Zuniga was captured and forced into a police car as he addressed reporters outside a military barracks, footage on state television showed. "General, you are under arrest," Deputy Interior Minister Jhonny Aguilera told Zuniga."No one can take away the democracy we have won," Arce said from a balcony of the government palace in front of hundreds of supporters.Earlier he had urged "the Bolivian people to organize and mobilize against the coup d'etat in favor of democracy," in a televised message to the country alongside his ministers inside the presidential palace. He also swore in new military leaders, firing Zuniga.Former president Evo Morales wrote on X that "a coup d'etat is brewing" and also urged a "national mobilization to defend democracy."- Zuniga's anti-democratic remarks -Bolivia is deeply polarized after years of political instability and the ruling Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) is riven by internal conflict between supporters of Arce and his former mentor Morales.Morales, who was Bolivia's first Indigenous president, was extremely popular until he tried to bypass the constitution and seek a fourth term in office in 2019. The leftist and former coca union leader won that vote but was forced to resign amid deadly protests over alleged election fraud, and fled the country. He returned after Arce won the presidency in October 2020.Since then a power struggle has grown between the two men, and Morales has increasingly criticized the government and accused it of corruption, tolerating drug trafficking, and sidelining him politically.Six months ago, the Constitutional Court disqualified Morales from the 2025 elections, however he is still seeking nomination as the MAS candidate.Arce has not said whether he will seek re-election.Zuniga appeared on television on Monday and said he would arrest Morales if he insisted on running for office again in 2025."Legally he is disqualified, that man cannot be president of this country again," he said.Since that interview, rumors have swirled that Zuniga was on the verge of being dismissed.- Calls for calm -The US administration of Joe Biden said it was keeping a close eye on events in Bolivia and "calls for calm," according to a spokesperson for the National Security Council.Condemnations of the troop movements also poured in from across Latin America, with leaders of Chile, Ecuador, Peru, Mexico, Colombia and Venezuela calling for democracy to be respected. Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva wrote on X: "I am a lover of democracy and I want it to prevail throughout Latin America. We condemn any form of coup d'etat in Bolivia."Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Wednesday called for "respect for democracy and the rule of law," in a message on X.The Organization of American States (OAS) said the international community would "not tolerate any form of breach of the legitimate constitutional order in Bolivia."bur-fb/md

  • Speaker Johnson: ‘No one expects that Joe Biden will be on cocaine’ at debate

    Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said Tuesday that no one expects President Biden to be “on cocaine” during the debate later this week, despite President Trump and his allies suggesting otherwise. Johnson joined CNN’s Kaitlan Collins to discuss how at a recent rally, Trump told his supporters that Biden is “gonna be so pumped up” and…