Weekly Report - 19 January 2023 (WR-23-03)

Following successive failed attempts at holding new elections, Haiti is now left with no democratically elected legislative officials after the terms of its last remaining 10 senators lapsed on 10 January. Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who took up the post unelected soon after the July 2021 assassination of former president Jovenel Moïse (2017-2021), has no democratic mandate. There is no functioning supreme court and the terms of local government officials have also expired. This plunges the country further into a constitutional void, which gangs continue to exploit. Insecurity is at a record high. The United Nations (UN) warned in October that hunger had reached “a catastrophic level”, with a record 4.7m people in Haiti (pop.11.7m) facing acute hunger. Cholera is also rampant.