Haiti residents cautiously hopeful as first Kenyan police deploy
https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/haiti-residents-cautiously-hopeful-first-kenyan-police-deploy-2024-06-28/
Haiti residents cautiously hopeful as first Kenyan police deploy
By Reuters
June 27, 2024 9:24 PM EDT Updated a day ago
PORT-AU-PRINCE, June 27 (Reuters) - Residents in the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince expressed cautious hope after a first contingent of Kenyan police officers arrived in the Caribbean country, as part of a long-delayed mission to help police fight armed gangs.
A few hundred Kenyan police officers landed in Haiti this week to lead a United Nations-ratified mission set to number over 2,500 - though it remains unclear when the remaining forces could arrive.
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The mission's initial 12-month mandate is set to expire in October. Previous missions in Haiti have left behind slain civilians, a deadly cholera outbreak and a sexual abuse scandal, for which reparations were never made.
The force was requested by Haiti's previous government in 2022, but gangs have since united under a common alliance and taken over swathes of the capital, bringing indiscriminate killings, ransom kidnappings, mass sexual violence and paralyzing the movement of people and goods.
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