200 more police officers left Kenya on Monday midnight for Haiti under a UN-backed mission to try to quell rampant gang violence in the troubled Caribbean nation.
"We have 200 police officers who left last night, they should land in their destination of Haiti this morning. They are joining their colleagues who are already on the ground,” one senior police officer told AFP on Tuesday.
"More will be departing soon until we have all the 1,000."
This comes days after Haiti Prime Minister Garry Conille requested the Kenyan government to deploy a second batch of police officers to support the Multinational Security Support (MSS) mission.
In a statement early this month, Inspector-General of Police Japhet Koome revealed that Conille made the request during a security briefing to the United Nations Security Council.
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“During the security brief to the UN Security Council this week, the Prime Minister called for the deployment of additional Kenyan police officers in Haiti, expressing his optimism that the MSS team will control the gangs,” Koome stated.
The request came two weeks after Kenya sent the initial 400 police officers to the troubled Caribbean nation.
Kenya initially deployed 400 police officers on June 24 as part of the 1000 -member contingent that completed pre-deployment training.
Further, Koome explained that the Kenyan police officers had embarked on joint operational, logistical, and induction training with their Haitian National Police counterparts.
Kenya is expected to be joined by at least six other countries in the MSS mission, which was approved by the United Nations in October 2023.
Other nations including Benin, the Bahamas, Bangladesh, Barbados, and Chad have pledged to join the mission.
