PRINCE PORT.- In an effort to restore order and security in HaitiKenyan police deployed as part of the Multinational Security Support Mission have carried out their first major operation against gang members in the Caribbean nation. The clashes occurred on Wednesday near the National Palace in Port-au-Prince, where officers were patrolling in armored vehicles.
The operation was not limited to this area, as police also intervened on Pavée Street, located on the outskirts of the capital. There, shootings were reported during the intervention against suspects, according to the local newspaper ‘Gazzete Haiti’.
He Haitian Prime Minister, Garry Conille, responded to these events by announcing that the government will declare a state of emergency in 14 gang-controlled communes. He also called on gang members to lay down their weapons and recognize state authority, promising a sustained but decisive fight against criminal gangs.
“The state of emergency will allow the government to have the necessary tools to act, confront the bandits and reestablish the authority of the State,” said Conille, while urging citizens to support law enforcement and remain vigilant.
This deployment of Kenyan forces is part of a contingent of 600 police officers sent to assist Haiti’s Transitional Presidential Council (CPT) in stabilising the country, which has been in chaos since the assassination of President Jovenel Moise in July 2021. Lack of leadership has been an ongoing challenge, with Ariel Henry, who took over as prime minister following the assassination, resigning in March this year due to widespread violence.
The CPT, headed by former senator Edgard Leblancappointed Conille as interim prime minister. Conille, who already held this position between 2011 and 2012, is tasked with leading the country towards elections scheduled for 2026, thus closing a long period of instability and power vacuums.
Violence against women
Gang violence has also left more than half a million people homeless in recent years, as rival gangs battle for control of more territory. More than half of those displaced are women and girls, and many live in overcrowded, unsanitary camps and makeshift shelters.
On Wednesday, the UN said that in most camps rape is used as a deliberate tactic to control women’s access to scarce humanitarian aid.
Sima Bahous, executive director of UN Women, urged the newly appointed government of Haiti to prevent and respond to such violence.
“The level of insecurity and brutality, including sexual violence, that women face at the hands of gangs in Haiti is unprecedented,” she said in a statement. “It must end now.”
Source: With information from Europa Press and AP
