‘Shootout’ amid Haiti protest kills 5

Five armed agents of an environmental protection body were killed in an apparent shootout with police near the Haitian capital Wednesday, as the country is seized by violent protests calling for the ouster of Prime Minister Ariel Henry.

A police source told Agence France-Presse the five agents of the National Agency for Protected Areas, an armed government bureau now in open rebellion, had been shot after refusing to drop their weapons and firing in the direction of police.

Three other members of the agency were arrested, said the source.

The shooting happened as thousands of protesters in Port-au-Prince and across the country are demanding that Henry step down in line with a political agreement forged in 2022.

According to an agreement concluded in December 2022 following the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moise a year earlier, Henry was supposed to hold elections and then cede power to newly elected officials on 7 February 2024.

But Henry has remained in power, with an aide saying the prime minister intends to form a government of national unity.

A protester, who is 40 and unemployed and who also declined to give his name, said Henry had “not provided any solutions to our problems.”

“The country is being held hostage by gangs. We can’t eat. We can’t send our children to school,” he added. “We can’t take it anymore.”

The protests have been called by several opposition parties and joined by employees of the environmental agency.