The first wave of Kenyan police disembarked a plane at the Port-au-Prince airport in Haiti on Tuesday as part of a UN-backed security mission to defeat the powerful gangs ravaging the island nation.
The officers are expected to lead a mission to tackle raging gangland violence convulsing the Caribbean nation, which has suffered a prolonged period of instability amid a severe humanitarian crisis.
Kenyan police streamed out of the plane at the capital’s airport as a small crowd, mostly airport personnel, greeted them on the tarmac.
Kenya volunteered in last July to lead an international force to stem the latest wave of violence to afflict Haiti, where gangs control most of the capital Port-au-Prince while carrying out widespread killings, kidnappings and sexual violence.
Read moreHow a lack of leadership allowed gangs to take over Haiti
But the deployment has been repeatedly delayed by court challenges and a deterioration of the security situation in the Caribbean country, which in March forced its former prime minister to resign.
The Kenyans will be joined by police from the Bahamas, Bangladesh, Barbados, Benin, Chad and Jamaica for a total of 2,500 officers that will be deployed in phases for an annual cost of some $600 million, according to the UN Security Council.
(FRANCE 24 with Reuters, AP)
