The government said the current president of Haiti was assassinated at his home early Wednesday morning. He was 53 years old.
Hovenel Moise was killed at his private residence at about 1 a.m. local time on Wednesday by a group of assailants, Haitian Prime Minister Claude Joseph said in a statement Wednesday.
The statement said the first lady also received a gunshot wound.
Joseph’s statement did not name the attackers, but said some were Hispanic. The main languages spoken in Haiti are Haitian Creole and French.
The Associated Press reported, citing Joseph, that police had been sent to the National Palace and Petition Villa.
ABC News reported that Toussaint-Louverture International Airport, located near Port-au-Prince, was closed after the attack.
Moses was extremely unpopular in his country.
The attack on Mois was followed by years of protests against his government and calls for his resignation.
Mois has been president of Haiti since February 2017, and in 2019 the country was supposed to hold general elections, but they were postponed. Elections will take place in September 2021.
Critics of Mois said he was clinging to power and said his term was due to end in February this year, according to AFP.
“He is doing his best to retain power and remains the only man in power in the country,” Gideon Jean, a lawyer and human rights activist in Port-au-Prince Miami Herald, said in January.
In addition to the election, the Haitian people also had to vote in a referendum in September this year on constitutional reforms that would give the executive more power.
The move to reform the 1987 constitution, which was supported by Moses, was extremely unpopular and was twice postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In his statement, Joseph called the attack “disgusting, inhuman and barbaric.” He also told The Times that the president had been “viciously killed” but that criminals “could not destroy his ideas”.
Joseph plans to address the country later on Wednesday, The Times reported.