Another 200 Kenyan police officers have left for Haiti under a UN-backed mission to try to quell rampant gang violence in the troubled Caribbean nation, senior police officers said Tuesday.
“We have 200 police officers who left last night, they should land in their destination of Haiti this morning,” one senior officer told AFP.
“They are joining their colleagues who are already on the ground.”
A first batch of about 400 Kenyan police officers arrived in Haiti in June, with the East African nation leading a force expected to number a total of some 2,500 personnel.
“More will be departing soon until we have all the 1,000,” a second Kenyan police officer said.
Other countries, mostly in Africa and the Caribbean, are also contributing to a mission blessed but not managed by the United Nations.
The UN Security Council approved the Kenyan-led multinational security force last year, but it faced months of delays due to court challenges in Nairobi, and then the political turmoil around the resignation of former Haitian prime minister Ariel Henry.
For years Haiti has been at the mercy of well-armed gangs that now control 80 percent of the capital Port-au-Prince and also major roads in the destitute country.
Conditions sharply worsened at the end of February, when armed groups launched coordinated attacks in Port-au-Prince, saying they wanted to overthrow Henry, who later resigned.
AFP