Kenya says it won’t deploy police to fight gangs in Haiti

Nigeria

Kenya’s government said Thursday that its police officers will not be deployed to Haiti until all conditions on training and funding are met in line with last month’s approval from the U.N Security Council to give the eastern African country command of a multinational mission to combat violent gangs in the troubled Caribbean country.

Interior Minister Kithure Kindiki told Parliament’s Departmental Committee on Administration and Internal Security that “unless all resources are mobilized and availed, our troops will not leave the country.”

He said U.N. member states are securing resources and have identified how funds will be mobilized and made available to Kenya for the mission. However, it was not immediately clear when the forces would be fully trained and funded to allow for deployment.

On Wednesday, Haiti’s Superior Court of Auditors and Administrative Disputes said five of its employees were kidnapped in the capital, Port-au-Prince, forcing the agency to temporarily postpone all hearings.

“The court hopes that the civil servants, who do not receive a salary that allows them to meet the financial demands of the kidnappers, will be quickly released,” it said in a statement.

Also this week, the U.N.’s International Organization for Migration said that nearly 2,500 people in the coastal town of Mariani located west of the capital were displaced by violence as gangs inltrate previously peaceful communities.

Nearly 200,000 Haitians have now lost homes to gangs who pillage neighborhoods operated by rivals in their quest to control more territory. Many of the displaced are now sleeping outside or in makeshift settlements that are crowded and extremely unsanitary.

On Wednesday, Haiti’s Superior Court of Auditors and Administrative Disputes said five of its employees were kidnapped in the capital, Port-au-Prince, forcing the agency to temporarily postpone all hearings.

“The court hopes that the civil servants, who do not receive a salary that allows them to meet the financial demands of the kidnappers, will be quickly released,” it said in a statement.

Also this week, the U.N.’s International Organization for Migration said that nearly 2,500 people in the coastal town of Mariani located west of the capital were displaced by violence as gangs inltrate previously peaceful communities.

Nearly 200,000 Haitians have now lost their homes to gangs who pillage neighborhoods operated by rivals in their quest to control more territory. Many of the displaced are now sleeping outside or in makeshift settlements that are crowded and extremely unsanitary.