Kenya puts Haiti police mission on hold after chaos grips Caribbean nation
- Kenyan official says deployment of UN-backed police on hold after a ‘fundamental change in circumstances in Haiti’
- Haiti’s prime minister said he had agreed to step aside as armed gangs have taken over much of the Caribbean nation
Kenya is halting plans to deploy at least 1,000 police officers to Haiti following the unprecedented violence that erupted in the Caribbean nation and the announcement by its Prime Minister Ariel Henry that he would resign once a presidential council is created, a Kenyan official said on Tuesday.
Kenya had agreed last October to lead a UN-authorised international police force to Haiti, but the country’s top court in January ruled this was unconstitutional, in part because of a lack of reciprocal agreements on such deployments between the two countries.
Kenya’s President William Ruto said that he and Henry had witnessed the signing of the reciprocal agreements between Kenya and Haiti on March 1, clearing the path for the deployment.
Under the plan, the UN-backed multinational police led by Kenyan officers was to help quell gang violence that has long plagued Haiti.
But violence escalated sharply since February 29, with gunmen burning police stations, closing the main international airports and raiding the country’s two biggest prisons, releasing more than 4,000 inmates.
