2023-07-30 10:19:20
The Kenya announced on Saturday 29 July that he was ready to lead a multinational force in Haiti and to deploy 1,000 police officers to the Caribbean country torn apart by violence.
“Kenya has agreed to positively consider taking the lead of a multinational force in Haiti. Kenya agrees to deploy a contingent of 1,000 police officers to help train and assist Haitian police in restoring normality to the country and to protect strategic installations,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.
Its “deployment proposal”, however, requires a mandate from the UN Security Council as well as the agreement of local authorities, the ministry said.
“An assessment mission by an operational team from the Kenya police is planned in the coming weeks,” the same source further explained, saying that this will enable information to be acquired and the mandate to be oriented according to the operational needs of the mission in Haiti.
Gang controlled capital
Gangs control regarding 80% of Port-au-Princethe Haitian capital, and violent crimes such as rape, kidnapping for ransom, armed robbery and carjacking are a daily occurrence.
With Haiti’s security forces overstretched, United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres and Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry have called for international intervention to support the police.
Anthony Guterres repeatedly called for the dispatch of an external force to the UNbut the Security Council has asked him to submit a report by mid-August on all possible options, including a UN-led mission.
Several countries said they supported the idea of such a force, but none offered to lead it, in a country scalded by multiple foreign interventions.
Read alsoCrisis in Haiti: in France, a diaspora between anguish and hope for change
This week, the United States ordered non-essential personnel and the families of civil servants to leave Haiti “as soon as possible”. On July 27, an American nurse and her child were kidnapped near Port-au-Prince, a Christian organization announced on Saturday.
In addition to the violence, nearly half of the population, or 5.2 million people, needs humanitarian assistance, including nearly 3 million children.
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