Injured Haitian First Lady Speaks Out After Husband's Assassination: 'I Will Not Abandon You'

Martine Moïse, the injured widow of Haiti's assassinated President Jovenel Moïse, spoke out this weekend after she and her husband were targeted in an overnight attack on their home by a group of armed men.

"I am alive, thanks to God," Martine said in an audio recording posted to Twitter, according to a translation by France 24. "I am alive but I have lost my husband."

While details are still developing in the aftermath of the assassination plot, Haitian authorities reportedly say Martine and Jovenel were attacked in Port-au-Prince in the early hours last Wednesday by a group of 28 men — whom police insist were foreign mercenaries.

At least four of the suspects were killed, and according to The New York Times, some two dozen have been arrested as of Sunday.

A Haitian-born doctor based in Florida has also been arrested and named as a key suspect in the assassination, with the national police chief suggesting he was somehow plotting to become president. (The doctor has not publicly responded to these allegations.)

According to the Times, there are so far "many murky and often contradictory claims surrounding the assassination."

"In the blink of an eye, the mercenaries entered my home and riddled my husband with bullets ... without even giving him a chance to say a word," Martine said in her message on Saturday. "I am crying, it is true, but we cannot let the country lose its way. We cannot let his blood ... have been spilled in vain."

Martine was taken to a Haitian hospital after she and Jovenel were attacked and she was later evacuated to Miami for further treatment. "I will not abandon you," she said in her message, promising to engage with Haitians on Facebook "in the near future."

Jovenel took office in 2017. According to the Associated Press, he had faced criticism from some for being authoritarian and using his power to dominate government.

His assassination frayed an already weakened political situation in Haiti, where an interim prime minister has now been named and a majority of the country's parliament is not in office.

The impoverished Caribbean country meanwhile faces pressure to move forward with elections.

U.S. officials from the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security have traveled to Haiti to support the investigation into the assassination and push for "political accord," the Times reported.