• Politician Eric Jean Baptiste was assassinated in front of his residence in Port-au-Prince.
• The assassination comes a year after the murder of Haiti’s President Jovenel Moise.
• More than 100,000 Haitians have been displaced by recent gang-related violence in the capital.

Politician from Haiti was shot dead outside of his home as international alarm over the gang violence, political unrest, and humanitarian issues that have taken over the nation grows. said Authorities .

According to local police, Eric Jean Baptiste was slain on Friday evening in front of his residence in Port-au-Prince.

He began an unlikely run for president in 2016 while serving as the head of the Rally of Progressive National Democrats Party (RNDP), a small political party in Haiti.

According to the police spokesperson, the incident also claimed the life of a security guard. Baptiste escaped from a previous attempt on his life in 2018 with a gunshot wound.

The assassination, which occurs a year after the murder of the country’s current President Jovenel Moise, is the most recent murder in a nation controlled by vicious gangs. This summer, Port-au-Prince was the scene of vicious gang wars in which entire districts were set ablaze, forcing hundreds of families to flee and keeping others inside their homes for fear of leaving even in search of food and water.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) of the United Nations said on Friday that the number of Haitians who have been displaced by recent gang-related violence in the capital has tripled in the previous five months.

The IOM report said more than 113,000 people were internally displaced from Port-au-Prince between June and August this year, with nearly 90,000 of them due to “urban violence linked to inter-gang, gang-police, and social conflicts.”

The most populated city in the nation is still under the authority or influence of criminals, and kidnappings for ransom pose a threat to inhabitants’ daily travels. In recent weeks, protesters in numerous cities demanded the resignation of Prime Minister Ariel Henry in response to skyrocketing inflation, high fuel prices, and unrestrained crime.

At the beginning of this month, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres denounced the “totally nightmare scenario” in Haiti, where gangs were impeding the flow of supplies into the Port-au-Prince harbour. The nation is in the midst of a humanitarian crisis, and a cholera outbreak has claimed scores of lives.

Bocchit Edmond, Haiti’s ambassador to the US, stated on media on Friday that if foreign forces interfere militarily in the nation, the government will call for democratic elections.

“It’s very important for all Haitians to work together… and while we are getting help from our international partners, that we make sure to prepare to have free and fair democratic elections. Because it is the most important thing… to have democratic institutions stand up again,” Edmond said, describing Haiti as a country “on the edge of collapse.”

“Before getting to elections, we need to restore law and order. And our national police itself cannot… because the gangs are well armed and their firepower is far more superior… we need international assistance,” the diplomat recently told media.

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