(Port-au-Prince) The new Prime Minister of Haiti, Garry Conille, was released from hospital on Sunday, two government sources announced to AFP, after having been admitted there the day before due to respiratory discomfort .
The leader’s state of health is stable, according to these same two sources.
On Sunday afternoon, Garry Conille published a video in which he speaks to the camera, standing.
“I am publishing this video to assure you that I am well,” he said, also promising that his ministerial cabinet would be completed this week.
The new prime minister was hospitalized on Saturday for an “asthma attack,” a government source told AFP.
“Following a week of intense activities”, Mr. Conille “felt slightly unwell” on Saturday afternoon “and went to the hospital to receive treatment”, reported the Prime Minister’s communications office Haitian Saturday evening on the social network
Last week, Garry Conille, 58, was named prime minister by Haiti’s presidential transitional council following the March resignation of Prime Minister Ariel Henry amid a surge in gang violence in the country. He was sworn in on Monday.
A doctor by profession, the politician had already been at the head of the Haitian government for six months between 2011 and 2012, and served until recently as regional director for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
Before his medical emergency on Saturday, Garry Conille visited the international airport of the capital Port-au-Prince, praising the efforts of security forces that allowed the resumption of flights after more than three months of interruption due to violence.
In late February, gangs launched coordinated attacks on strategic sites in Port-au-Prince, saying they wanted to overthrow Mr. Henry.
Port-au-Prince is 80% in the hands of criminal gangs, accused of numerous abuses, in particular murders, rapes, looting and kidnappings for ransom.
On Sunday, Kenyan President William Ruto announced that the deployment of Kenyan police officers as part of a UN-backed mission to Haiti would take place “probably next week or the next.”
The population is also facing a serious humanitarian crisis, with shortages of food, medicine and other basic goods.