A formal ceremony to install Haiti’s transitional ruling council will be held early Thursday, the prime minister’s office said, as the violence-wracked nation moves to form an interim government.

The event will be held at the prime minister’s office, known as Villa d’Accueil, in the Musseau neighborhood of the capital, according to a press invitation from the office.

With the installation of the new nine-member body, formally known as the Presidential Transition Council, Haiti moves a step closer to filling the leadership vacuum.

The Caribbean nation has been rocked by an explosion of violence since late February, when powerful gangs launched a wave of attacks in the capital and demanded Prime Minister Ariel Henry’s resignation.

The United Nations says that out of a population of about 11.6 million, some 360,000 Haitians are internally displaced. The gang violence, according to UN experts, has forced 95,000 people to flee the capital and pushed five million into “acute hunger.”

Henry, the country’s unelected leader since the 2021 assassination of president Jovenel Moise, agreed in mid-March to step aside and be replaced by the council, which is made up of seven voting members selected across Haiti’s political spectrum and two non-voting observers.