Haiti requests US, UN forces to protect key infrastructure after President Jovenel Moise's assassination

"We were in a situation where we believed that infrastructure of the country – the port, airport and energy infrastructure – might be a target," the Haitian minister told Reuters.

Bogota: Haiti has requested U.S. and U.N. security forces to help it protect key infrastructure like the airport and ports after the assassination of President Jovenel Moise by foreign mercenaries, a government minister said on Friday. The assassination of Moise by a squad of gunmen in the early hours of Wednesday morning at his home in Port-au-Prince pitched Haiti deeper into a political crisis which may worsen growing hunger, gang violence and a COVID-19 outbreak. Elections Minister Mathias Pierre said a request for U.S. security assistance was raised in a conversation between Haiti`s interim Prime Minister Claude Joseph and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday. Haiti also made a request for forces to the U.N. Security Council on Thursday, Pierre said.