Kenya police alongside the Haitian troops staged raids on separate strongholds of criminal gangs in the larger Port-au-Prince and recovered assorted weapons.
The team under 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 into Pont-Sonde operation on October 21 2024, officials said.
Otunge said the main objective of the security operation was to capture Elan Luckson – leader of Gran Griff gang who was behind the heinous attack of locals at Pont-Sonde where more than 115 people were killed.
“Despite the gangs 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 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.
The team set up a Forward Operating Base (FOB) in the area to enhance operations.
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 authorised 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.
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