The campaign against criminal gangs in Haiti received a boost when 70 Salvadoran soldiers came with medical supplies.
They now join Kenyan, Guatemalan, Jamaican, Belizean, and Bahamas forces on the ground as part of the Multinational Security Support Mission (MSS).
On February 4, the new team was welcomed in Port-au-Prince by various officials, including local police chief Rameau Nomil and MSS force commander Godfrey Otunge, as well as representatives of the diplomatic corps.
Notably, French Ambassador Antoine Michon and Canadian Ambassador André François Giroux were also present.These soldiers will help with medical evacuations during anti-gang operations.
This contingent provides extensive air support experience, which will be important for both casualty and medical evacuation missions within the Mission.
El Salvador’s helicopters are anticipated to land before the end of the week. A state of emergency has been in effect in the Caribbean nation for months as the government confronts vicious gangs who have taken control of part of the capital, Port-au-Prince.
The military are in Haiti to support a United Nations-backed security mission led by Kenya, which has so far failed to prevent violence from growing.
Heavy-armed gangs in Haiti have assaulted a neighborhood that is home to the majority of the country’s elite and has previously been mostly unaffected by criminal activity.
The police have requested assistance in resisting the assault, which killed at least 40 people on Monday, February 3.Meanwhile, French President Emmanuel Macron has urged the UN to consider sending a peacekeeping force to Haiti.
Macron made the idea in a letter to the United Nations following his meeting with Leslie Voltaire, president of Haiti’s Transitional Presidential Council, at the Elysee Palace in Paris.Kenya deployed approximately 600 police personnel to confront the gangs.
This was the initial phase of a UN-approved international force consisting of 2,500 officers from various countries.
There are concerns that even if the team manages to oust the gangs from this bastion, the absence of an immediate and long-term occupation by the police.
Meanwhile, the United States has told the United Nations (UN) that it is withholding some crucial financing for the peacekeeping mission in Haiti.
Speaking to the press on Tuesday evening, UN Spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said that Donald Trump’s administration had announced the freezing of Ksh1.7 billion for the mission.
“We received an official notification from the United States asking for the immediate stop work order on the mission contribution,” Dujarric told journalists.
The decision to discontinue funding the peacekeeping force is part of the US President’s sweeping instructions, which also included a 90-day suspension of foreign aid.
The United States increased its push to change the Kenya-led mission into a UN-backed mission in November of last year, but it is unclear how Trump’s directives will affect the mission.
The United States was the largest contributor to the expedition established by former American President Joe Biden in 2023.
However, from its inception, the mission has faced numerous problems, including a lack of funding.
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