Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry to resign amid low-scale civil war, bowing to international pressure

Haiti Prime Minister Ariel Henry announced Tuesday that he will resign, bowing to international pressure to do so amid turmoil that has overwhelmed the country.

In a statement released early Tuesday morning, Henry agreed to leave office once a transitional presidential council is created and an interim PM is named. The announcement came hours after officials, including Caribbean leaders and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, met in Jamaica to discuss Haiti’s spiraling crisis worsened by violent gangs burning police stations, attacking the main airport and raiding two of the country’s biggest prisons.

Some experts have described the current crisis as a low-scale civil war.

"The government that I’m running cannot remain insensitive in this situation. There is no sacrifice that is too big for our country," Henry said in a recorded statement. "The government I’m running will remove itself immediately after the installation of the council."

BLINKEN TO MEET WITH CARIBBEAN LEADERS AS HAITI'S VIOLENT CRISIS GROWS

It is not immediately clear who will lead Haiti out of the crisis.

The resignation came just days after the State Department requested the Marines to bolster U.S. personnel as armed gang violence have broken down law and order in the Caribbean country.

This week, the Marines deployed a security team to Haiti and the U.S. military also carried out an operation to airlift personnel out of the Embassy.

"At the request of the Department of State, the U.S. military conducted an operation to augment the security of the U.S. Embassy at Port-au-Prince, allow our Embassy mission operations to continue, and enable non-essential personnel to depart," U.S. Southern Command said.

It added: "This airlift of personnel into and out of the