FOUR people suspected of involvement in the assassination of Haiti’s President Jovenel Moise were shot dead late on Wednesday during a gun battle with security forces.

A further two were detained, according to police who said that an unknown number of assailants remain at large in the capital Port-au-Prince.

“They will be killed or captured,” police chief Leon Charles said.

Haiti has been plunged into further turmoil after Mr Moise was shot dead in his own home in the early hours of this morning.

Video footage shared by the Miami Herald appeared to show armed men storming his residence claiming to be from the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA).

Haitian ambassador to Washington Bocchit Edmond said that it was difficult to know who was behind this “act of barbarity” but confirmed he had appealed to the US to help investigate.

“It could be foreign mercenaries, because the video footage showed them speaking in Spanish,” he said. The main languages in Haiti are Creole and French.

Mr Joseph, who is interim prime minister, said that the country was under a state of emergency which was needed to deter mass gatherings and protests during a volatile period.

He had been sacked by Mr Moise who named a new prime minister, Ariel Henry, to replace him. 

But Mr Henry has not been sworn in yet, leaving a power vacuum and uncertainty.

He insists that he is still the country’s prime minister and is putting together a cabinet. Mr Henry said he disagrees with Mr Joseph’s decision to implement a state of emergency and has urged dialogue.

According to Haiti’s constitution the president of the Supreme Court should assume the vacancy created by Mr Moise’s assassination.

But the holder of that post, Chief Justice Rene Sylvestre, died of Covid-19 last month.

Haiti is one of the world’s poorest countries with 60 per cent of the population earning less than $2 per day.

Strikes and mass protests have demanded the resignation of Mr Moise who was accused of ruling as a dictator after his term officially ended in February.

He had since dissolved parliament and ruled by decree. Earlier this year he claimed to have foiled an attempted coup with more than 20 opponents arrested in the aftermath.

The UN security council made “an emphatic call on all political stakeholders in Haiti to refrain from any acts of violence or incitement.”