Caricom leaders will host an emergency meeting on Wednesday to discuss the assassination of Haiti's president Jovenel Moise.

Moise was killed by gunmen around 1 am on Wednesday at his home. His wife Martine was injured and taken to hospital.

The act has been condemned by several individual Caricom leaders as well as the US and the United Nations.

Haiti's borders were subsequently closed and a state of siege – one tier above a state of emergency – was declared.

Before this, there had been several protests in the country's capital, Port-au-Prince, calling on Moise to step down as president, as the Opposition said his term should have ended on February 7.

He dismissed those claims and said it was set to end in 2022.

Moise was elected in 2016 but took office in early 2017 "after a chaotic election that forced the appointment of a provisional president to serve during a year-long gap," an AP report said. It said Moise ruled by decree for over two years after the country failed to hold elections.

His assassination came day after the 42nd regular meeting of Caricom heads, hosted by newly-appointed chairman, Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda Gaston Browne.

In an official statement on Wednesday afternoon, Browne sent condolences to the Haitian population.

He acknowledged Moise was "mired in a debate as to whether his term ended months ago or continues until early next year.

"This uncertainty, as well as the presence of armed gangs determined to claim control over parts of Port au Prince, the capital, made governance extremely complex and dangerous...The assassination of last evening further complicates the jostling for power that has characterised the Haitian state and its future."

He said Caricom feels Haiti's pain, adding that the country was "embraced by Caricom because of the historic role played by its proud people in 1804, declaring itself a sovereign state, where slavery was brought to an immediate end."

He said Haiti has had an "unstable existence" which includes a US invasion in 1915.

He recalled, "The UN and Organization of American States (OAS) were petitioned by Caricom and others to intervene in order to bring stability to Haiti after Jean-Claude Duvalier unleashed violence on the Haitian people."

He said the Caricom governments "decry" the violence in Haiti.

"Caricom will continue to work in close co-operation with the Haitian people, the UN, the OAS and the governments of France and the US in bringing a reasonable settlement of the state of uncertainty and instability that now threaten the peace and security in Haiti and our community as a whole.

"We continue to press for Haiti's development and for it to overcome the challenges of the past that have imperiled Haiti's development."

The statement did not say what time the emergency meeting will be held.

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