200 additional Kenyan police arrive in Haiti in UN-backed mission to fight criminal gangs

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — A second contingent of 200 police officers from Kenya arrived Tuesday in Haiti to bolster a U.N.-backed mission led by the East African country to battle violent gangs in the troubled Caribbean country.

The officers arrived nearly a month after the first contingent of 200 landed in the capital of Port-au-Prince, where gangs control at least 80% of the territory.

Authorities have declined to provide details on the Kenyans’ assignments, citing security concerns, although AP journalists have seen them on patrol in areas near the main international airport, which reopened in late May after gang violence forced it to close for nearly three months.

More Kenyans are expected to arrive in coming weeks and months and will be joined by police and soldiers from the Bahamas, Bangladesh, Barbados, Benin, Chad and Jamaica for a total of 2,500 personnel. They will be deployed in phases at a cost of some $600 million a year, according to the U.N. Security Council.

While some Haitians have welcomed the arrival of the Kenyans, others remain wary. Kenyan police have faced years of allegations of abuses in their country, including extrajudicial killings.