Dare we hope that in the foreseeable future there could be relative stability in Haiti?

We note this week’s pledge from that country’s newly installed interim Prime Minister Mr Garry Conille that greater security and a crackdown on corruption would be priorities for his newly installed Government.

“Haiti is confronted by major challenges. Violence and instability paralyse our daily lives,” Mr Conille, who was appointed two weeks ago, was reported by the news agency AFP as saying.

“My Government will work without rest to improve the conditions of each and every Haitian… without security, no sustainable progress can be achieved.

“It is crucial our police and soldiers are ready to face today’s security challenges. And we will ensure that they have the tools they need to carry out their mission effectively and professionally,” the interim prime minister reportedly said.

Those are strong, brave words, given news reports that Haiti remains besieged by criminal gangs who are said to control most of the capital city, Port-au-Prince.

Mr Conille and Cabinet ministers were appointed as part of a transitional governance arrangement agreed at a high-level meeting in Jamaica back in March, involving Haitian stakeholders, Caricom, and international “partners”.

A desired, eventual outcome is for “free and fair elections” in a country in which people have not voted since 2016.

Mr Conille and his Cabinet were appointed by a transitional presidential council representing key interest groups in Haiti. The new Government replaces that of former Prime Minister Mr Ariel Henry, who resigned in April following demands by civil society groups and gang leaders.

As explained by chairman of Caricom, Guyana President Dr Mohamed Irfaan Ali in March, the transitional arrangement seeks to ensure that “Haiti will be governed by the rule of law,” and “reflects hard compromises among a diverse coalition of actors who have put their country above all differences”.

We are now presumably very close to the planned deployment in Haiti of a United Nations-backed, Kenyan-led security force to help the local authorities restore order. As we understand it, that security force is to include personnel from Jamaica, and the wider region.

That the Haitian authorities need help is not in question. Crucially, though, all effort must be made to ensure that those entering from outside are seen by law-abiding locals as friendly to their cause, not ‘hostiles’.

That’s a challenge that can’t be avoided.

Haiti has had more than its fair share of crises dating back to the historic revolution which defeated and evicted European enslavers at the turn of the 19th century.

In our time, political instability has been made worse by catastrophic natural disasters, including the 2010 earthquake which, by some estimates, left more than 200,000 dead and caused monumental infrastructural damage.

The assassination of President Jovenel Moise in 2021 was a major factor in the more recent descent to anarchy.

Jamaicans and their Caribbean neighbours must never forget our debt to the Haitian people whose ancestors showed the way in freeing themselves from slavery and brutal colonial domination.

Also, frequent boatloads of refugees reaching our shores, fleeing turmoil and disorder, should serve as constant reminder that our stability is at risk if instability persists unabated in Haiti.