The US government will give Sh14.5 billion (USD 100 million) to the Kenya Police-led peacekeeping effort in Haiti.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken indicated Friday that the Biden administration was keen on ensuring that the police mission is successful.
According to Blinken, the support will include logistics, intelligence, communication, and medical assistance.
“The people of Haiti cannot wait much longer. Improved security must be accompanied by real progress to resolve the political crisis. The support mission will not be a substitute for political progress,” he stated.
The announcement by the Biden administration was made hours after Blinken held a meeting with Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary Alfred Mutua alongside other officials from the United Nations (UN) at the sidelines of the UN General Assembly (UNGA).
Blinken hinted that the purpose of the meeting was to increase support for the Kenya-led expedition, which has not yet received approval from the UN Security Council.
The focus of the behind-closed-doors conference was on the officers’ logistical needs and the early findings of the Kenyan police team’s visit to Haiti in August.
The Dominican Republic has agreed to offer assistance to the proposed UN Security Mission to Haiti that will be led by Kenya.
President William Ruto made the revelation Tuesday last week after meeting with the met Dominican Republic president Luis Abinader while in New York.
“Resolved to work together to bring peace and stability to Haiti. Grateful Dominican Republic will establish a mission in Nairobi,” said Ruto.
During the meeting Kenya and Dominican Republic signed Framework Cooperation Agreement to strengthen bilateral relations, and exchange specialists, researchers, professors, interns and institutional strengthening programmes.
US president Joe Biden had commended Ruto’s willingness to deploy police officers to Haiti to support and train the Caribbean nation’s law enforcement in their efforts to restore stability to the troubled nation.
Speaking at the 78th edition of the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Tuesday, which Ruto was in attendance, Biden underscored that the international body must continue to preserve peace, prevent conflict and alleviate human suffering globally.
“We embrace nations stepping up to lead new ways and to seek new breakthroughs on hard issues. For example on Haiti, the Caribbean communities facilitated a dialogue among Haitian society. I thank President William Ruto of Kenya for his willingness to serve as the lead nation of a UN-backed security support system,” said Biden.
He also urged the UN Security Council to authorise the mission to the Caribbean nation further noting that “the people of Haiti cannot wait any longer”.
Last month, a Kenyan security team on an assessment mission to Haiti visited the Caribbean nation and briefed Ruto on their findings.
A series of events are planned if a decision is made to send police to combat the gang violence that has wrecked the Caribbean nation.
These include identification of the team to be recruited, training them, kitting the team, funding them and dispatching them to Haiti.
While in Haiti, the team met Prime Minister Ariel Henry, members of his government and leaders of the High Council of the Transition (HTC) on their tour of the country.
This comes ahead of the planned deployment of 1,000 Kenyan police officers to combat the gang violence that has wrecked the Caribbean nation.
Kenya will lead an international police force aimed for the mission to begin probably in a month.
The delegation also visited the top brass of the Haitian National Police (PNH) for a working session on the security situation and weakness of the agency, officials said.
They also on August 22 met the police chief Frantz Elbe among others.
The Haitian media said the team was also taken around the capital in Port-au-Prince and other sites affected by the gangs.
The force is meant to assist Haiti’s understaffed and under-resourced police department, with only about 10,000 officers for the nation’s more than 11 million people.
Deputy Inspector General of Administration Police Noor Gabow led the team.
Before arriving in Haiti on Sunday, the Kenyan delegation met with countries and groups in New York that are trying to decide how best to help Haiti.
From January 1 until August 15, more than 2,400 people in Haiti were reported killed, more than 950 kidnapped and another 902 injured, according to the most recent U.N. statistics.
The Kenyan officials said the countries they met understand “the Haitian demands and the urgent need to put an end to a situation which is paralysing the functioning of the country and putting the future of its citizens in danger.”
Henry’s government first requested international security assistance last October, but despite repeated calls from the United Nations, the call went unanswered until Kenya said it was prepared to lead such a force last month.
After the Kenyan assessment, the plan to send a security force to Haiti will pass a vote at the U.N. Security Council.
Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have called for the planned multinational force to include safeguards to prevent abuses.
Previous interventions left behind a devastating cholera epidemic, as well as over a hundred allegations of sexual abuse.
Countries have also been wary of backing Henry’s unelected government.
Henry, who is facing international pressure to broaden political consensus and include more people in decision-making, has in turn pledged to hold elections once security is re-established.
The government statement said Henry had reiterated the need to establish free movement of people and goods and that lessons had been learned from previous missions in Haiti.
“Kenyan troops benefit from much experience, having served in places such as Kosovo, Yugoslavia, Sierra Leone, East Timor, Somalia, Sudan and Angola,” it said.
Other regional countries have pledged to send their police officers to make it 2,000 strong force.
Henry said on August 7 that he spoke with Ruto to thank Kenya for the “demonstration of fraternal solidarity.”
The Caribbean nation is suffering from a surge in gang violence and is in a deep security, political and humanitarian crisis.
As the search continued, gang warfare continued to worsen, leading to a wave of hundreds of kidnappings and the emergence of vigilantes taking justice into their own hands.
Today, armed groups control an estimated 80 percent of Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince.
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