Police outside the hospital where Haiti’s new Prime Minister Garry Conille was hospitalised in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on 9 June 2024, following “a slight illness” (Clarens SIFFROY / AFP)
- Kenya’s President William Ruto says police from his country will deploy in Haiti within weeks.
- Those police are supposed to fight rampant gang violence in Haiti.
- Legal challenges in Kenya previously halted the operation, and may yet do so again.
Kenyan police will deploy to quell gang violence in Haiti probably within weeks, the east African country’s President William Ruto said on Sunday, despite court challenges that delayed the mission.
Kenya is aiming to lead a UN-backed mission to secure the Caribbean nation, stricken by violence, poverty and political instability.
Kenya is due to send 1 000 officers for the mission alongside personnel from several other countries.
“The people of Haiti are maybe waiting, by the grace of God, that probably by next week or the other week, we shall send our police officers to restore peace,” Ruto said in an address during a visit to central Kenya on Sunday.
A UN Security Council resolution in October last year approved the mission but a Kenyan court in January delayed the deployment.
It said the government did not have the authority to send police officers abroad without a prior agreement.
The government secured that agreement on 1 March and Ruto told the BBC last month that he expected a Kenyan force to go to Haiti within weeks.
But a small opposition party in Kenya filed a fresh lawsuit to try to block it. Kenya’s High Court is due to consider that case on 12 June.
Aside from Kenya, other countries that have expressed willingness to join the mission include Benin, the Bahamas, Bangladesh, Barbados and Chad.
Global monitor Human Rights Watch has raised rights concerns about the mission and doubts over its funding.
Rights groups have accused Kenyan police of using excessive force and carrying out unlawful killings.
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Source link : https://www.news24.com/news24/africa/news/kenyan-police-to-deploy-to-haiti-within-weeks-says-ruto-20240609
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Publish date : 2024-06-09 22:22:26