NAIROBI (Reuters) – Kenya’s foreign minister said on Saturday that Kenya was ready to lead a multinational force in Haiti, which has seen a surge in violence between police and gangs.
The escalation of armed gangs in Haiti has created a humanitarian crisis, displacing tens of thousands of people.
Earlier this month, UN Secretary-General António Guterres appealed to the Security Council and potential major contributing countries to move quickly to create the conditions for the deployment of the multinational force in Haiti.
“At the request of the Group of Friends of Haiti, Kenya has agreed to consider positively leading a multinational force to Haiti,” Foreign Minister Alfred Mutua said in a statement.
“Kenya’s commitment is to deploy a contingent of 1,000 police officers to help train and assist the Haitian police to restore normalcy in the country and protect strategic facilities.”
The Haitian Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Mutua said that the planned deployment from Kenya is still subject to obtaining authorization from the UN Security Council and Kenyan mandates.
“An assessment mission is scheduled to be carried out by a working group from the Kenyan police within the next few weeks,” he said.
(Reporting by George Oboluca; Additional reporting by Valentin Hillier in Mexico City; Editing by Giles Elgood)
