Haiti security forces have killed four individuals and captured two others suspected to have assassinated the country’s president, Jovenel Moïse.
Haiti security forces have killed four individuals and captured two others suspected to have assassinated the country’s president, Jovenel Moïse.
According to Aljazeera, Police General Director Leon Charles described the four people killed as “mercenaries” and said that security forces were locked in a fierce gun battle with the men who assassinated the president at his home overnight.
A video had emerged showing a series of cars rolling towards Jovenel Moïse’s house as other armed gang members follow on foot.
In the video, the gunmen allegedly posing as US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents are seen storming the politician’s home in the capital of Port-au-Prince before he was shot dead in front of his wife at 1 am on Wednesday, July 7.
The First Lady, Martine Moïse, is fighting for her life after being shot multiple times in the attack.
The 47-year-old has since been flown to Florida and taken to Baptist Hospital in Miami for treatment, where she is in a stable but critical condition.
The assassination, which drew condemnation from Washington and neighboring Latin American countries, came amid political unrest, a surge in gang violence, and a growing humanitarian crisis in the poorest nation in the Americas.
Joseph Claude, the interim prime minister who has assumed leadership of the country, said the assassins spoke English and Spanish and the majority in Haiti either speak French and Haitian Creole.
Ever since he took over in 2017, Moise has faced calls to resign and mass protests first for corruption allegations and his management of the economy, then for his increasing grip on power.
