According to the police commissioner of the Caribbean Island, a multinational force commanded by Kenya would hopefully contribute to some kind of stability in Haiti, where gang conflict has intensified into an instance of “urban guerrilla” warfare.
After a year of continuous requests for assistance from Haiti, the UN Security Council approved this month the deployment of a 1,000-strong support group led by Kenyan police.
- Advertisement -
During a two-year email interview with the media, Frantz Elbe, the head of the Haitian National Police, stated that his organization force “was not created to confront armed criminal urban guerrilla groups.” The gangs, which rule over around 80% of Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capital, are armed with “military-grade weapons and connections with mafia networks, transnational criminals and major financial resources,” he stated.
Even before the killing of President Jovenel Moise in 2021, it sparked a political crisis that spiraled out of control, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere had been in upheaval for years.
There is hardly any working administration, the economy and public health system are in ruins, and elections have not been held since 2016.
Elbe said that the gangs had expanded in strength and amassed increasingly deadly weaponry.
Elbe noted that gangsters used to carry revolvers or pistols, but presently “they are armed with assault rifles.”
As Haitians attempt to protect themselves, many have been forced to evacuate their homes, and vigilante organizations have developed.
Elbe cited operations in which suspected gang members were detained or seriously injured in shootouts with security agents as evidence that police had made some progress.
He said that police also successfully seized a sizable number of weapons and ammo.
The presence of urban guerrilla gangs, however, has kept the nation in a condition of “generalized terror,” and there aren’t enough police officers trained to deal with this sort of issue, he claimed.
Elbe, who was appointed by Prime Minister Ariel Henry, explained that a powerful, specialized, and deterrent foreign force might collaborate with the Haitian National Police in significant operations to destroy armed gangs.
He predicted that the Kenyan force would be armed with gang-fighting equipment and expressed the hope that it would enable his guys to “carry out their operations more efficiently.”
In addition to being able to “transfer technology” and equipment at the conclusion of their mission, he expects the force will be able to “conduct joint training and simulation sessions with special units” of the national police.
The United Nations did not provide a timeline for the deployment, and a Kenyan court halted it on Monday due to a lack of legal support.
However, the operation has been justified by Kenyan President William Ruto as a humanitarian effort for a nation that has “borne the brunt of colonial plunder and repression,” according to Ruto.
He also mentioned Kenya’s long involvement in peacekeeping operations.
