Haiti president assassination: Four 'mercenaries' killed, two arrested by police

Haiti police executed four "mercenaries" they alleged were behind President Jovenel Moise's assassination on Wednesday and jailed two others.

"Four mercenaries were killed, two were intercepted under our control. Three policemen who had been taken hostage have been recovered," the director general of Haiti's national police Leon Charles said in a televised statement.

He said police pursued the assassins immediately after the attack on Moise and his wife, who survived, at their home in Port-au-Prince early Wednesday.

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In what investigators described as a well-planned operation involving "foreigners" who knew Spanish, a group of unknown assailants entered Moise's home early Wednesday, shooting him and wounding his wife, Martine Moise.

Interim Prime Minister Claude Joseph announced a national "state of siege" and said he was now in charge of the country as the UN Security Council scrambled to convene an emergency meeting for Thursday.

In the capital Port-au-Prince, the airport was closed, but observers reported the city was peaceful, with streets abandoned and no additional security troops on patrol.

Jovenel Moise was the 58th President of Haiti who had taken the office in February 2017 after being declared the winner of the November 2016 election.

This was not the first time Moise was attacked. In February 2021, Moise claimed that an attempt to take his life was blocked by the local police.

"I thank my head of security at the palace. The goal of these people was to make an attempt on my life. That plan was aborted, " local media had quoted him as saying at the time.

(With inputs from agencies)