- The selected officers reported to different camps for combat training before they meet in Nairobi for a week, then break to their homes ahead of departure.
- The deployment will increase to more than 1,000 the number of personnel on the UN-supported security mission in the Caribbean.
Image: FILE
More than 600 personnel reported to police training camps for a short training ahead of deployment to Haiti.
They will join more than 400 police officers are already engaged in combating gangs in the capital Port-au-Prince, officials aware of the developments said.
Insiders said the plan is to send out the new team to Haiti by next month.
The selected officers reported to different camps for combat training before they meet in Nairobi for a week, then break to their homes ahead of departure.
The deployment will increase to more than 1,000 the number of personnel on the UN-supported security mission in the Caribbean.
Another insider said Kenya will have to prepare for another reserve of 500 personnel, given plans to turn the Haiti operation into a full UN peacekeeping mission.
The team is picked from the Rapid Deployment Unit, Anti Stock Theft Unit, General Service Unit, and Border Patrol Unit.
These officers have paramilitary training and have so far worked well with personnel from Haiti.
Since the first team arrived in June, they have taken control of the main port, hospital, palace, major highways and airport in the capital city.
With the local police, they are already liberating major slums from the control of gangs.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Haiti on Thursday to reaffirm his government’s commitment to the multinational mission to fight gangs in the Caribbean country and push for long-awaited general elections as he supported consideration of a peacekeeping operation.
“At this critical moment, we do need more funding, we do need more personnel to sustain and carry out the objectives of this mission,” Blinken told reporters.
He added that the US is working to renew the mission, “but we also want to make sure that we have something that’s reliable, that’s sustainable. We’ll look at every option to do that. A peacekeeping operation would be one such option.”
On Wednesday, Brian Nichols, US Assistant Secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs, confirmed the US government was considering a UN peacekeeping operation as one way to secure money and resources to fight gangs that control 80 per cent of Haiti’s capital.
Many Haitians have rejected the proposal of another peacekeeping operation, given the introduction of cholera and sexual abuse cases that occurred when UN troops were last in Haiti.
Blinken arrived a day after Haiti’s government extended a state of emergency to the entire country.
It was imposed earlier in the year in the capital and surrounding areas in an attempt to stem the ongoing violence.
Blinken met with the head of the multinational mission, Godfrey Otunge, and the chief of Haiti’s national police.
He said the discussions centred in part on how to ensure that security personnel were well-trained, well-equipped and held accountable, adding that there’s a “clear plan” on the mission’s next steps.