The first wave of a 2,500-member international force sent to restore order in the gang-plagued Caribbean nation has arrived, but critics worry the plan will fail.
Foreign law enforcement officers began arriving in Haiti on Tuesday, more than year and a half after the prime minister there issued a plea to other countries for help to stop the rampant gang violence that has upended the Caribbean nation.
Footage shared on social media showed dozens of armed men in military fatigues filing out of a Kenya Airways plane at Haiti’s Toussaint Louverture International Airport in the capital, Port-au-Prince.
The officers are part of a deployment of police officers from eight nations who will fan out across the capital in an effort to wrest control of the city from dozens of armed groups that have attacked police stations, freed prisoners and killed with impunity.
Since the appeal for international help went out in October 2022, more than 7,500 people have been killed by violence — more than 2,500 people so far this year alone, the United Nations said.
With a weakened national government and the presidency vacant, dozens of gangs took over much of the capital earlier this year putting up roadblocks, kidnapping and killing civilians and attacking entire neighborhoods. About 200,000 people were forced out of their homes between March and May, according to the U.N.
Now an initial group of 400 Kenyan police officers have arrived to take on the gangs, an effort largely organized by the Biden administration. The Kenyans are the first to deploy of an expected 2,500-member force.
