The strife-torn Caribbean Community nation of Haiti will likely be the focus of global attention in the coming weeks, as the first contingent of peacekeeping troops from Kenya is scheduled to arrive on the island as early as this week, even as heavily armed gang leaders say they are ready to declare war on the contingents.
The international community has been ramping up efforts to get a multinational peacekeeping force on the ground to tackle armed gangs controlling the capital, preventing international flights from landing, and causing food shortages as stores and warehouses are shuttered. The gangs are responsible for killing and maiming hundreds of people in the last three years, having been on a rampage ever since the early July 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse. His death and the chaos that followed meant that general elections were delayed and the constitutional term of nearly every elected leader has expired.
Several Caricom nations including Jamaica, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize and Suriname among others have pledged to join the force that will also likely have boots on the ground support from Chile, Bangladesh, Paraguay, Burundi, Benin, Nigeria, Chad, and Mauritius among other nations.
To tie up administrative and operational ‘loose ends,’ Kenyan President William Ruto travels to the U.S. this week for a mini-summit meeting with President Joe Biden. The American president has pledged to press Washington to increase its financial support to Kenya for the mission beyond a $200 million pledge to Kenya and a $300 million package to the wider effort. The visit comes just days after Washington delivered a first batch of 10 armored vehicles to be used by troops and police officers supporting local policemen battling the gangs. The vehicles are part of a $60 million package of military aid pledged by Biden.
The incoming international force, expected to number at least 2000, should begin arriving just as Haiti’s interim or transitional presidential council prepares to select a new prime minister to replace Ariel Henry, who resigned last month after the council was initiated. The council is working alongside the remnants of Henry’s administration but the cabinet will dissolve once a new PM is named. The deadline for nominations was last week Friday. At least 80 people have applied for the position, officials said this week. Caricom nations say they will not only support the mission but have done their part in brokering the interim administration that will take the country to fresh general elections in about two years.
“This is a Haitian-led process. Caricom has done all that it can to bring the process to this point,” Bahamian Foreign Minister Fred Mitchell told reporters. “It’s not really for us to determine who’s going to lead and who’s going to do what. It’s just, we have to see how the process unfolds. It appears to me that it has the broadest acceptance at this point of the elites in Haiti and that the international community accepts that this is the right direction going forward,” he said of the work of the interim council.
Surinamese President Chan Santokhi said that his police officers must first be properly trained. “We are not going to just send our people. We will support our Caricom sister state. We will provide support through, among other things, a police mission that will be led by Kenya. One day you may also need Haiti or another friendly nation,” he recently told the Star News publication.
Meanwhile, local Haitian publications are reporting that gang leaders, including the infamous Jimmy ‘Barbecue’ Cherizier of the G9 gang coalition, has already publicly pledged to fight peacekeeping force members once they set foot on the ground in Haiti, saying they are preparing for a long and protracted fight with “the invaders.” The G9 alliance, combined with another major group, G-PEP, recently held a street march to demonstrate the extent of their power and influence.