Haitian President Jovenel Moise was assassinated in an attack on his private residence, the country’s interim prime minister said in a statement Wednesday, calling it a “hateful, inhumane and barbaric act.”

       Moise’s wife, First Lady Martine Moise, was hospitalized following the overnight attack, interim Premier Claude Joseph said.

       “The country’s security situation is under the control of the National Police of Haiti and the Armed Forces of Haiti,” Joseph said in a statement from his office. “Democracy and the republic will win.”

       In the early morning hours of Wednesday, the streets were largely empty in the Caribbean nation’s capital of Port-au-Prince, but some people ransacked businesses in one area.

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       Joseph said police have been deployed to the National Palace and the upscale community of Petionville and will be sent to other areas.

       Joseph said some of the attackers spoke in Spanish but offered no further explanation.

       Opinion

       Op-Ed: Will the U.S. finally correct its course in Haiti?

       Opinion

       Op-Ed: Will the U.S. finally correct its course in Haiti?

       Until now, the U.S., along with international partners, has backed Haitian President Jovenel Moise’s claim to his extra year of rule.

       The nation of more than 11 million people had grown increasingly unstable and disgruntled under Moise’s rule. Its economic, political and social woes have deepened, with gang violence spiking heavily in the capital of Port-au-Prince, inflation spiraling, and food and fuel becoming scarcer at times in a country where 60% of the population makes less than $2 a day.

       These troubles come as Haiti still tries to recover from its devastating 2010 earthquake and from Hurricane Matthew, which struck in 2016.

       Moise, who was 53, had been ruling by decree for more than two years after the country failed to hold elections, which led to Parliament being dissolved. Opposition leaders have accused him of seeking to increase his power, including a decree limiting the powers of a court that audits government contracts and another creating an intelligence agency that answers only to the president.

       In recent months, opposition leaders demanded that he step down, arguing that his term legally ended in February. Mo？se and supporters maintained that his term began when he took office in early 2017, following a chaotic election that forced the appointment of a provisional president to serve during a year-long gap.

       Haiti was scheduled to hold general elections later this year.