New Contingent of Kenyan Police Arrives in Haiti

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About 10 countries pledged troops for Haiti as part of a United Nations-backed anti-gang force, but few have so far been deployed. Kenya began sending police to the country in June last year and now has more than 600 people on the ground.

The latest contingent of 217 Kenyan police officers arrived in the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince recently. Prime Minister of Haiti Alix Didier Fils-Aime greeted them. The newly arrived police force will be deployed to the Caribbean to back an understaffed international security mission.

About 10 countries pledged troops for Haiti as part of a United Nations-backed anti-gang force, but few have so far been deployed. Kenya began sending police to the country in June last year and now has more than 600 people on the ground.

President William Ruto has promised 1,000 troops as part of the Multinational Security Support (MSS) mission. Kenya’s Interior Minister, Kipchumba Murkomen, addressed the latest group sent to Haiti and said that the officers who have been there since last head had contained so many of those gangs.

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However, the United Nations said more than 5,600 people were killed in spiralling gang violence in Haiti last year. Fighting has also left more than 700,000 Haitians homeless in recent years, with many crowding into makeshift and unsanitary shelters.  More than 80 per cent of the capital is still controlled by criminal gangs, according to the UN.