Haiti’s PM mobilises UN-backed Kenyan forces to reclaim capital from gangs
- Gangs control 80 per cent of Port-au-Prince, and they have been blamed for killing or injuring more than 1,500 people
Haitian Prime Minister Garry Conille ordered gangs to surrender their weapons during a televised speech late on Wednesday in which he acknowledged how dangerous life in Haiti’s capital and beyond has become and pledged to crack down on the rampant violence.
Conille spoke a day after a second group of 200 Kenyan police officers arrived in Haiti to help quell widespread gang violence as part of a UN-backed mission led by the East African country.
“Life every day in Port-au-Prince has turned into a battle for survival,” he said. “Many innocent people have lost their lives.”
Gangs control 80 per cent of Port-au-Prince, and they have been blamed for killing or injuring more than 1,500 people in the first three months of the year alone.
Earlier on Wednesday, journalists observed a line of armoured vehicles roll down the main boulevard in downtown Port-au-Prince, one of the capital’s more dangerous areas, as a crowd of Haitians gathered quietly to observe, arms on their hips.
The vehicles carried Kenyan and Haitian police as they fanned out across the downtown area. Several shots rang out, but it wasn’t clear who fired and if anyone was injured or killed.
