New PM discharged from hospital

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP):

Haiti’s newly selected Prime Minister, Garry Conille, was discharged from a hospital Sunday after spending a night in treatment for an undisclosed condition.

In a video published on YouTube, Conille said he felt well and was “ready” to continue to help steer the country out of its current security crisis by forming a government that would also prioritise issues like healthcare.

In his video, Conille said: “The whole time I was at the hospital, I was thinking of something: People that need to go to the general hospital can’t get there (due to widespread violence). People who need healthcare can’t afford it.”

Gang violence remains relentless in the Caribbean country, with three police officers killed Sunday and a fourth one missing, according to Synapoha, a police union. The officers were part of a new anti-gang unit, it said.

The violence has forced roughly 60 per cent of hospitals in the capital city’s metropolitan area to close while gangs also loot and burn pharmacies, and doctors are forced to stay at home on some days to avoid dangerous clashes between gangs.

Conille arrived in Haiti on June 1 after a transitional council selected him as the nation’s new prime minister. He had been working outside the country as UNICEF’s regional director for Latin America and the Caribbean.

The new prime minister has an arduous task ahead of him, having to quell rampant gang violence while helping lift Haiti out of deep poverty, with inflation reaching a record 29 per cent, according to the latest data available.