Kenya police alongside the Haitian ones staged raids on separate strongholds of criminal gangs in the larger Port-au-Prince and recovered assorted weapons.
The team under the Multinational Security Support Mission (MSS) said they arrested dozens of suspected criminals in the October 21 raid in PaP, at Artibonite and the wider Western departments.
MSS Force commander
Godfrey Otunge said they will sustain the operation to pacify areas under the
control of the gangs.
The heinous attack at Pont Sonde some weeks ago saw the immediate deployment of police officers drawn from MSS and HNP who have been conducting night and day patrols that culminated in the Pont-Sonde operation on October 21 2024.
Otunge said the main objective of the security operation was to capture Elan Luckson - leader of the Gran Griff gang who was behind the heinous attack of locals at Pont-Sonde where more than 115 people were killed.
“Despite the gang's frantic efforts to dig trenches, ditches and put barricades on the roads to impede access to their hideouts, the joint MSS and HNP resolute teams went for them and smocked them out of their hideouts where Luckson (the notorious gang leader) escaped by a whisker.”
“Dozens of gang members were arrested and are currently being grilled as locals bayed for their blood,” he said.
To access the gangs’
hideouts at the Carrefour Paye intersection on the road that leads to the home of
Elan Luckson, the dedicated team of MSS and HNP officers had to fill up the dug
trenches with sand.
The joint security operation ended at “Pat
Chwal", a locality located in the municipality of Saint-Marc, where
assorted weapons and materials that included HNP stores were recovered.
They included a 12 GA rifle brand Mossberg, a fake pistol, four mobile phones, two bulletproof vests from the Haiti National Police and binoculars.
The team has set up a Forward Operating Base (FOB) in the area to enhance operations.
“We wish to equally thank the civilians who turned up in large numbers to help fill and load the sandbags that were used to fill up the trenches that the gangs had dug to impede access to their hideouts.”
Kenya police alongside officials from Bahamas, Belize and Jamaica have deployed their troops to Haiti to help in fighting criminal gangs destabilizing the country.
Over 700,000 people
in Haiti have fled their homes and over five million are going hungry - nearly
half the population, according to the United Nations.
Last month, the U.N. Security Council
unanimously authorized extending the MSS's mandate by another year.
A U.S. push for a plan to turn it into a U.N. peacekeeping mission was dropped from the resolution due to opposition from Russia and China.
Last week, the personnel on the ground staged an
operation in a slum that left 20 gang members dead.
Officials said during the clash, the team also brutally injured the second leader of the Kraze baryè gang, Deshomme.
Several items including firearms, ammunition, mobile phones, sensitive materials and equipment were seized during the operation.
There is a push to deploy more personnel to the
country for enhanced operations.