Haiti has decided to request the help of international troops as gangs and protesters paralyse the poor country and supplies of water, fuel and basic goods dwindle.
According to international media, in a document published on Friday and signed by Prime Minister Ariel Henry and 18 top-ranking officials, "the risk of a major humanitarian crisis" is threatening the life of many people.
It authorises Henry to request from international partners "the immediate deployment of a specialised armed force, in sufficient quantity," to stop the crisis across the country caused partly by the "criminal actions of armed gangs."
"It is imperative to restart activities to avoid a complete asphyxiation of the national economy," the document states.
It wasn't clear if the request had been formally submitted, to whom it would be submitted and whether it would mean the activation of United Nations peacekeeping troops, whose mission ended five years ago after a troubled 11 years in Haiti.
As per international media reports, Bocchit Edmond, Haiti's ambassador to the United States, told reporters in Lima that a request for "foreign assistance" was made on Thursday.
"Now we are waiting on the international community and the international partners to decide what kind of form that assistance will be," he said on the sidelines of the general assembly meeting of the Organization of American States.
What it will not be, said Edmond, is a "foreign force or foreign occupation" of Haiti. Rather, "it's a call to solidarity" in the face of a "human tragedy," the ambassador added.
