Taiwan’s embassy in Haiti yesterday presented Haiti’s national police and army with protective equipment such as helmets, tactical knee pads, eye protectors and bulletproof vests to support their fight against powerful gangs.
Haiti’s prime minister’s office said 400 individual kits had been delivered, for a total of 800 kits from Taiwan in two years.
“This donation is not only a material contribution; it also reflects a sincere and lasting friendship between Haiti and Taiwan,” Haitian Prime Minister Garry Conille said in a statement.
Photo: REUTERS
The Caribbean nation is one of Taiwan’s few remaining diplomatic allies. It also maintains a trade office in Beijing.
A handful of countries have pledged a total of 2,900 police for a UN-backed police mission in Haiti. However, so far, only 400 Kenyan police have been deployed.
Kenyan and Haitian media have reported a lack of key equipment and delays in paying their wages.
With little more than a month left in the mission’s mandate, results have been scarce with many pledges left unfulfilled.
Nearly 580,000 people are internally displaced in Haiti, and millions are going hungry.
Haiti’s army was reinstated in 2017 after it was dismantled during the 1990s. However, it is the national police that leads efforts against the country’s gangs.
As of the end of May, the national police had 12,000 officers, down by more than 1,000 from the start of the year, UN data showed.
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