PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Kenyan President William Ruto arrived in Haiti on Saturday as the United Nations grapples with how best to support a peacekeeping mission of under-resourced Kenyan and Jamaican forces that have struggled to contain gangs terrorizing the Caribbean nation.
Ruto stepped off the plane and walked past armed officers on a small red carpet flanked by other officials. He headed to a Kenyan base at the airport, where he was expected to meet police fighting the gangs.
Kenya was the first nation to send forces as part of a broader UN effort to offer international support to Haiti, which has been mired in conflict and political turmoil following the 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse.
Some 400 Kenyan police officers are in Haiti. As of earlier this month, some 400 Kenyan police officers are in Haiti. Two dozen Jamaican police and soldiers They have arrived in the country, but the United States and other countries have said the forces are not sufficient and lack the resources to confront the gangs, which control about 80 percent of the capital, Port-au-Prince.
The mission is expected to total 2,500 troops, and the Bahamas, Bangladesh, Barbados, Benin and Chad have also pledged to send police and soldiers, although it was unclear when that would happen.
While the United States has considered the idea of a UN peacekeeping force, the idea would be far-fetched and controversial given the Introduction of cholera and cases of sexual abuse which happened the last time UN troops were in Haiti.
Meanwhile, a UN human rights expert warned on Friday that Gang violence is spreading across Haiti and that the Haitian National Police still lacks the “logistical and technical capacity” to fight the gangs, which continue invade new territory.
Ruto’s visit also comes days after Haiti created a provisional electoral council, long requested by the international community to facilitate the first general elections held in the country since 2016.
In the power vacuum left by Moïse’s assassination, the gangs have only seized more power. Many hope that a general election will also help restore order in Haiti, along with the peacekeeping mission.
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