Haitian President Jovenel Moïse assassinated

Haitian President Jovenel Moïse has been assassinated in his private residence by a group of armed men who also seriously injured his wife.

A statement from the interim Prime Minister Claude Joseph, Wednesday, confirmed the killing of Moïse, saying the attack had been carried out by an armed commando group that included foreign elements.

“Around one o’clock in the morning, during the night of Tuesday 6 to Wednesday 7 July 2021, a group of unidentified individuals, including some speaking Spanish, attacked the private residence of the president and fatally injured the head of state,” Joseph said in a statement to the media.

He condemned the act as inhuman and barbaric, while reassuring Haitians that the security situation in the country remained calm.

He added that Moïse’s wife, Martine, had been seriously injured in the attack.

A top official who spoke anonymously to the Associated Press also confirmed Moïse’s death.

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Observers say that the assassination is likely to plunge the impoverished Caribbean nation into further turmoil after several years marked by political unrest and violence.

Moïse’s time in office had been marked by an increase in political instability, allegations of corruption and a long-running dispute about when Moïse’s period in office should end.

There have been intermittent periods of protests and street violence and a rise in gang violence, some of it tied to the country’s political parties. At the centre of the crisis has been the question of when Moïse’s presidential term was due to end – and whether he was governing unconstitutionally.