PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — A second contingent of 200 police officers from Kenya arrived in Haiti on Tuesday to bolster a U.N.-backed mission being led by the East African country to combat gang violence in the troubled Caribbean nation.
The officers arrived nearly a month after the first contingent of 200 troops landed in the capital, Port-au-Prince, where gangs control at least 80% of the territory.
Authorities have declined to provide details of the Kenyans’ missions, citing security concerns. However, AP journalists have seen the Kenyans patrolling areas near the main international airport, which reopened in late May after being closed for nearly three months due to gang violence.
More Kenyans are expected to arrive in the coming weeks and months, joined by police and soldiers from the Bahamas, Bangladesh, Barbados, Benin, Chad and Jamaica, for a total of 2,500 troops. They will be deployed in phases at a cost of about $600 million a year, the UN Security Council said.
While some Haitians have welcomed the Kenyans’ arrival, others remain wary. Kenyan police have faced years of allegations of abuses in their country, including extrajudicial killings.
