PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti
A couple hundred police officers from Kenya landed in the capital of Port-au-Prince, whose main international airport reopened in late May after gang violence forced it to close for nearly three months.
The Kenyans’ arrival marks the
fourth major foreign military intervention in Haiti.
It wasn’t immediately known
what the Kenyans’ first assignment would be, but they will face violent gangs
that control 80% of Haiti’s capital and have left more than 580,000 people
across the country homeless as they pillage neighborhoods in their quest to
control more territory.
Gangs also have killed several
thousand people in recent years.
While some Haitians welcome
their arrival, others view the force with caution, given that the previous
intervention - the U.N.’s 2004-2017 peacekeeping mission - was marred by cases
of sexual assault and the introduction of cholera, which killed nearly 10,000
people.
Romain Le Cour, senior expert
at Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, called on the
international community and government officials to share details including the
mission’s rules of engagement and concept of operation.
“We haven’t heard about a
proper strategy about the mission on the ground, what is going to happen
vis-a-vis the gangs,” he said. “Is it a static mission? Is it a moving mission?
All those details are still missing, and I think it’s about time that there’s
actually transparency.”
Meanwhile, the United Nations
Integrated Office in Haiti issued a brief statement welcoming the Kenyans'
arrival: “It is a crucial step in the fight to restore security in the Haitian
capital and its surroundings and protect the rights of Haitians.”
The Kenyans’ deployment comes
nearly four months after gangs launched coordinated attacks targeting key
government infrastructure in Haiti’s capital and beyond. They seized control of
more than two dozen police stations, fired on the main international airport
and stormed Haiti’s two biggest prisons, releasing more than 4,000 inmates.
“We’ve been asking for
security for the longest time,” said Orgline Bossicot, a 47-year-old mother of
two who sells carrots and charcoal as a wholesale distributor.
Gang violence has stymied her
sales, and she tries to stay out as late as possible before sundown to make up
for the losses despite being afraid.
“You don’t know who’s waiting
for you around the corner. We are a target,” she said, adding that she is
hopeful about the Kenyan police joining forces with local authorities. “It
would be a great step forward for me, for Haiti and for a lot of people.”
Critics say the coordinated
gang attacks that began Feb. 29 could have been prevented if the foreign force
had been deployed sooner, but multiple setbacks including a legal challenge
filed in Kenya and political upheaval in Haiti delayed its arrival.
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