PREVIEW
The Nairobi-led police peacekeeping force in Haiti faces more challenges, with reports of resignations over delayed wages and insufficient ammunition
The difficulties facing the Kenya-led police peacekeeping effort tackling gang warfare in Haiti continue to mount amid reports that around 20 of the 400 Kenyan police officers have tendered their resignation citing delays to wage payments.
None of the officers – which include several senior commanders – have left the mission but are understood to have tendered written resignations over the past two months. Officers have also complained of having insufficient ammunition after armed gangs in Haiti stepped up attacks on their positions.
Police chief Douglas Kanja has refuted the claims, saying that the reports of resignations are ‘malicious’. He says that officers have been paid up until the end of October.
During a visit to Haiti in October, President William Ruto promised to expand the deployment to 1,000 in the coming weeks. However, that promise was originally made last year and the first batch of 400 Kenyan police only arrived in Port-au-Prince in June (AC Vol 64 No 16, Kenyan cops vs Haitian gangs). The extra 600 men have not materialised, while cashflow for the mission has been a long-running problem.
In late November, the finance ministry in Nairobi confirmed that it had spent 2.1 billion shillings (US$15 million) on the mission so far, money that Treasury Secretary John Mbadi says the United States has promised to reimburse.
The UN aims for a total deployment of over 2,000 officers, but so far, only a handful from other countries have arrived. Ruto insists that ‘when resources are made available, there will be demonstrable progress of the mission,’ but has warned that without new funding the mission would run out of cash by March 2025 (Dispatches, 15/10/24, More cops will be sent but cash is needed).
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