Leaders meet over Haiti

Canada has opened a high-level international meeting on Haiti by announcing more than US$50 million (NZ$74.5m) in aid to address the country’s myriad challenges. The virtual meeting is being attended by foreign ministers from over a dozen countries, who are increasingly concerned about Haiti’s instability after the assassination of its president last July, followed by a devastating earthquake five weeks later, and now a migration crisis as security and economic woes spur Haitians to flee by sea. The presidential term of the assassinated Jovenel Moise will officially end on February 7, but Haiti faces a constitutional crisis, with interim Prime Minister Ariel Henry and other civic leaders unable to agree on the path forward. Haiti is not only seeing a sharp rise in kidnappings by armed gangs, but poverty is deepening as the cost of living rises amid the Covid-19 pandemic.