PORT-AU-PRINCE (AFP) — Haiti’s presidential transitional council, which has run the impoverished Caribbean nation for nearly two years, on Saturday handed power to United States-backed Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aime, after failing to rein in rampant gang violence.

The transfer of power between the nine-member council, created in April 2024, and 54-year-old businessman Fils-Aime took place under tight security, given Haiti’s unstable political climate.

“Our watchwords are clear: security, political dialogue, elections, stability. Mr Prime Minister, in this historic moment, I know that you are gauging the depth of the responsibility you are taking on for the country,” council president Laurent Saint-Cyr told Fils-Aime.

Fils-Aime is now the country’s only politician with executive power.

He faces the daunting task of organizing elections with the backing of a polarized political establishment.

For years, Haiti — the poorest country in the Americas — has been in the throes of deadly gang violence, with frequent murders, rapes and kidnappings.

Elections have not taken place since 2016, and the country has not had a president since Jovenel Moise was assassinated in July 2021.

Gangs now control 90 percent of the capital Port-au-Prince, and they killed nearly 6,000 people in 2025, according to the United Nations.

About 1.4 million people, or 10 percent of the population, have been displaced by the violence, and nearly half of all Haitians face acute food insecurity, including 1.2 million children under the age of five.

Amid fears of a political vacuum, the US — which sent three warships to Haiti this week — threw its support behind Fils-Aime.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has stressed “the importance of his continued tenure as Haiti’s prime minister to combat terrorist gangs and stabilize the island.”

Washington also sanctioned two council members and a minister, accusing them of supporting gangs.

For several weeks, Haitian police have been conducting a large-scale offensive against gangs in central Port-au-Prince, destroying one home belonging to notorious gang leader Jimmy Cherizier, also known as “Barbecue.”