Investigations have been launched in Haiti after the attempted assassination of Prime Minister Ariel Henry on Sunday morning (January 2).

The attempt on Henry’s life comes just months after President Jovenel Moise was assassinated in on July 7 last year

Police reports indicated that at least one person was killed while several others were injured in Gonaives as Henry and his entourage left a church service that was held to  commemorate the  country’s 218th anniversary of political independence.

The prime minister was rushed from the scene as heavily armed gangs that control the area opened fire at the official delegation.

The one person so far confirmed dead, was cut down during the shootout between the armed gang and security personnel protecting Henry and other officials.

The dead man’s identity was not released.

The mass had been held in defiance of the gangs that had warned Henry not to come to the city.

Following the incident, the remaining events to celebrate Independence Day were cancelled.

Henry was installed as prime minister weeks after Moise’s assassination and has been taking aim at the explosion of crime and violence that has taken hold in the country since.

COLOMBIAN TO BE DEPORTED FROM JAMAICA

Just a day before the attempt on Henry’s life, word came down that a former Colombian military member implicated in Moise’s killing would be deported from Jamaica to his home country on January 3.

Mario Antonio Palacios, 43, is accused by Haitian authorities of forming part of a mercenary group that assassinated Moise during an assault on his private residence, during which his wife was also injured.

Palacios was arrested in Jamaica last October and convicted for illegally entering the country from the Dominican Republic.

Jamaica’s government had issued a deportation order for illegally entering the country. But the island nation has no formal extradition treaty with Haiti, where Palacios is wanted, a local police spokesman said.

“The information supplied did not link him to the assassination and essentially indicated that he was a suspect for attempted armed robbery, without any detail,”Jamaica’s Attorney General Marlene Malahoo Forte said in a statement.

“Our attempts to get further and better particulars from the Haitian government were unsuccessful.”

It has been suggested in the Jamaican media, however, that an accomplice has claimed Palacios was in the room when Moise was being killed.