Two months after the first Kenyan police officers arrived in Haiti, little progress has been made against the country’s rapacious gangs — and the buildup of an international policing mission appears stalled.
With UN backing and funding from the US, the mission was supposed to bring order to a nation where armed groups control 80 percent of the capital, Port-au-Prince.
However, the Kenyan police — now numbering 400 — and their Haitian counterparts have not recaptured any gang strongholds, with frustration palpable among city residents.
Photo: EPA-EFE
“The abuse from the gangs continues, and the bandits aren’t even worried,” motorcycle-taxi driver Watson Laurent, 39, said, adding he had been in favor of the international intervention.
“I thought they would restore peace and support our police who were overwhelmed,” he said. “I am very concerned. I can’t sleep at night because of the explosions.”
Violence-plagued Haiti was plunged into further turmoil after a coordinated gang uprising in February saw attacks on the international airport and police stations, and led to the resignation of former Haitian prime minister Ariel Henry.
The Multinational Security Support Mission (MSS), which Kenya had stepped up to lead, was already in planning and was finally deployed to help Haiti tackle the soaring insecurity.
The first 200 Kenyans arrived in late June, with another 200 last month.
However, the force has “neither the sufficient personnel nor the equipment to launch real offensive operations against the gangs,” said Diego Da Rin, Haiti analyst at the International Crisis Group non-governmental organization.
The Kenyans and the Haitian National Police have protected key buildings and facilities in Port-au-Prince, while gangs — accused of rape, murder and kidnapping — have largely held on to their territory.
The only major operation that the Kenyan police were involved in was at the end of last month, when the 400 Mawozo gang took the town of Ganthier, 28km east of Port-au-Prince.
However, ahead of the security forces’ arrival, gang members skipped town — only to retake Ganthier once the Kenyan and Haitian police left.
Kenyan police have said they have made “significant progress,” including helping take back “critical infrastructure, including the airport, from gang control” and opening “roads that have enabled the return of thousands of Haitians earlier displaced.”
Most of that progress took place before their arrival, Da Rin said.
Many ordinary Haitians are angry.
“The MSS needs to get to work,” said Yverose Amazan, a shopkeeper. “This situation has gone on too long.”
With a price tag of US$600 million, the MSS is supposed to total 2,500 officers from Bangladesh, Benin, Chad, the Bahamas, Barbados and Jamaica — yet only the Kenyans have arrived, and with just 400 of their planned 1,000 officers.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called for more funding, with the latest figures showing only US$21.6 million out of the US$85 million pledged has been received.
Meanwhile the US has contributed more than US$300 million in funds and equipment, including armored vehicles.
The gang uprising was just the latest shock to hit a country grappling with the compounding effects of political crises, natural disasters and poverty.
About 600,000 people have been displaced in Haiti, according to the UN, while about 4.5 million do not have enough to eat.
The prospects might look grim, but Amazan hopes the police mission “does something” by the time school starts next month.
“I would like to be able to move around my country, as was the case before the proliferation of the gangs,” she said.
‘UNUSUAL EVENT’: The Australian defense minister said that the Chinese navy task group was entitled to be where it was, but Australia would be watching it closely The Australian and New Zealand militaries were monitoring three Chinese warships moving unusually far south along Australia’s east coast on an unknown mission, officials said yesterday. The Australian government a week ago said that the warships had traveled through Southeast Asia and the Coral Sea, and were approaching northeast Australia. Australian Minister for Defence Richard Marles yesterday said that the Chinese ships — the Hengyang naval frigate, the Zunyi cruiser and the Weishanhu replenishment vessel — were “off the east coast of Australia.” Defense officials did not respond to a request for comment on a Financial Times report that the task group from
DEFENSE UPHEAVAL: Trump was also to remove the first woman to lead a military service, as well as the judge advocates general for the army, navy and air force US President Donald Trump on Friday fired the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Air Force General C.Q. Brown, and pushed out five other admirals and generals in an unprecedented shake-up of US military leadership. Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social that he would nominate former lieutenant general Dan “Razin” Caine to succeed Brown, breaking with tradition by pulling someone out of retirement for the first time to become the top military officer. The president would also replace the head of the US Navy, a position held by Admiral Lisa Franchetti, the first woman to lead a military service,
Four decades after they were forced apart, US-raised Adamary Garcia and her birth mother on Saturday fell into each other’s arms at the airport in Santiago, Chile. Without speaking, they embraced tearfully: A rare reunification for one the thousands of Chileans taken from their mothers as babies and given up for adoption abroad. “The worst is over,” Edita Bizama, 64, said as she beheld her daughter for the first time since her birth 41 years ago. Garcia had flown to Santiago with four other women born in Chile and adopted in the US. Reports have estimated there were 20,000 such cases from 1950 to
CONFIDENT ON DEAL: ‘Ukraine wants a seat at the table, but wouldn’t the people of Ukraine have a say? It’s been a long time since an election, the US president said US President Donald Trump on Tuesday criticized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and added that he was more confident of a deal to end the war after US-Russia talks. Trump increased pressure on Zelenskiy to hold elections and chided him for complaining about being frozen out of talks in Saudi Arabia. The US president also suggested that he could meet Russian President Vladimir Putin before the end of the month as Washington overhauls its stance toward Russia. “I’m very disappointed, I hear that they’re upset about not having a seat,” Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida when asked about the Ukrainian
RSS