The UN has embarked on training sessions for Kenyan police officers deployed to Haiti to fight gangs terrorizing locals.
The UN Human Rights took the Multinational Security Support mission team through the compliance framework, which aims at integrating human rights and international humanitarian law principles into the planning, conduct, and evaluation of security operations.
During the August 1 event in Port-au-Prince, the officers were also taken through international standards and good practices on the use of force particularly relating to the MSS mission in Haiti.
This came as the team was informed gangs were now becoming confrontational and harsh on them.
This follows a series of events where the officers have taken over places where the gangs used to operate.
On July 30, a Kenyan police officer in Haiti was shot and wounded in a confrontation with gangs in Port-au-Prince.
A team was on patrol along the National Hospital-APN Sea Port road when they noticed a lorry that was being attacked and looted by suspected gangsters.
Head of the mission Godfrey Otunge said the team noticed that the gang had shot dead the driver as they looted the track that was loaded with bags of rice.
“The patrol team immediately engaged the gangs after they started shooting at them,” Otunge said.
“One Kenyan contingent sustained a gunshot injury on the shoulder in the process and was evacuated to Life Support Area Hospital for management.”
He said the officers sustained an injury to the left acromioclavicular joint with soft tissue injuries.
“The officer is upbeat and is in stable condition, awaiting further medical attention,” he said.
Otunge said the gangs escaped with serious, life-threatening injuries, disappearing into the tall buildings they were shooting from.
This came a day after the team and their local ones engaged gangs in a gun drama as Prime Minister Garry Conille visited a hospital on Monday, July 29 in Port-au-Prince.
The incident happened Monday, July 29 as the PM with the Director General of Haitian National Police Normil Rameau and Otunge visited the General Hospital premises for assessment, officials said.
Both Otunge and Rameau said no injury was reported in the Monday drama but there were gunshots fired by both the security and gangs in and around the hospital.
“Later the HNP and the MSS contingent followed up where the shots had been fired from the neighbourhood and pacified the area,” the police commanders said in a joint statement.
“The hospital is still under the control of HNP and the MSS contingent. No fatalities or injuries from HNP and MSS were recorded during the successful event."
They said they had visited the hospital and the PM was accompanied by CNN for coverage where towards the end of his interview, two shots were heard from the nearby neighbourhood.
They added after the PM had completed the interview, he left the hospital with his security detail but while at one of the corners of the hospital, some security officers fired some shots to provide cover for the PM's exit.
“The PM together with his team left the hospital safely and was escorted back to his office," they said.
Officials say the gangs have become increasingly confrontational after realizing the troops are slowly gaining areas they have been controlling.
Kenyan police are in Haiti to help the local officials stabilize gangs that had almost overrun the capital.
The team is supposed to among others man the port, the main airport, the presidential palace, the main hospitals and the main highways.
Otunge said MSS in partnership with HNP continues to conduct their daily operations in efforts to stabilize Haiti while striving to reclaim critical facilities currently under the gangs.
The Kenyan team has been receiving delegations from various foreign countries as part of their support.
They have also trained the local police officers on various combat operations.
Apart from Kenya, other countries that have pledged to send officers to Haiti include Benin, Jamaica, the Bahamas, Belize, Barbados, Antigua and Barbuda, Bangladesh, Algeria, Canada and France.