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Fighting among gangs in the capital has forced hundreds of
thousands from their homes while closing major ports, cutting
off key supplies of food, medicine and aid, intensifying a food
crisis that has plunged millions into hunger.
"We are going through an interesting moment for the Haitian
people, a moment of political groups putting aside their
differences for the interest of the nation," Conille told a
swearing-in event in Port-au-Prince, the capital.
"The first instruction the transition council members gave was
that we have no time to lose," added the leader, until recently
a regional director at U.N. children's agency UNICEF.
He spoke days after being named for the office, more than a
month after a nine-member transition council was sworn in and
nearly three months after his predecessor Ariel Henry resigned
while stranded in the nearby U.S. territory of Puerto Rico.
Henry had traveled abroad to secure Kenya's leadership of an
international security force he requested in 2022 to help
national police battle the gangs that have coalesced around
major alliances in the capital.
Factional disagreements and threats slowed the setting-up of the
transition council, drawn from various political parties and
levels of society, but Conille said the first meeting had been
convivial.
Although council members had shown an "encouraging" disposition
and momentum in conversation, he added, "We have no illusions
about the difficulties ahead, no illusions that things will be
easy."
Their next task will be choosing the new cabinet and paving the
way for a delayed first deployment of Kenyan police.
Conille was photographed with eight council members, as business
sector representative Laurent Saint-Cyr, who has been abroad and
who did not participate in the vote to elect Conille, remained
absent, without assigning a reason.
Haitian feminist groups blasted the absence of female
representation among the council's voting members and those
interviewed for the prime minister's job, urging the new
administration to include women in government.
(Reporting by Steven Aristil; Writing by Sarah Morland; Editing
by Clarence Fernandez)
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