As gang-ravaged Haiti awaits Kenyan-led int’l force, ‘state institutions are on verge of collapse’

As gang-ravaged Haiti awaits Kenyan-led int’l force, ‘state institutions are on verge of collapse’

all day today on France 24 we’re focusing on the worsening situation in Haiti gangs have taken over much of that country since the president was assassinated almost three years ago that led to violence and destruction in the besieged capital of Porto prance on Friday three missionaries including two Americans were killed in Haiti by gangs meanwhile the arrival of a peacekeeping police force from Kenya has been postponed again it’s now set to arrive in Haiti in about three weeks time the peacekeepers have the backing of the UN and the us but human rights organizations are concerned about the record of Kenya’s police force as Eliza Herbert explains it’s been months since Haiti’s latest violent Uprising and the country remains in a dire State thousands of civilians have been chased from the capital port oance and lawlessness abounds as gangs continue to operate now a new multinational security support mission is seeking to quell the violence 2,500 officers are part of a Kenya security Mission the first any African nation has led outside of the continent some 1,000 will come from Kenya’s paramilitary and police forces which have a history of tackling riots domestically within their own borders and with US forces in neighboring Somalia against the extremist al-shabab group the rest of the force will come from countries including benine Jamaica Chile Chad and Nigeria they have taken French classes and are prepared to work in collaboration with Haiti’s National Police Force to stabilize the situation on the ground and train them up so they can stand on their own two feet under an ultimate goal of creating security conditions to hold free and fair elections 13 votes in favor the UN has backed the mission and Washington has pledged $300 million in funding but it has not been without controversy some critics were concerned that Kenyan officers couldn’t handle the task others have cited previous human rights violations the history of the police force in the last Police Service in the last uh two years has been essentially quite brutal and the concern has been that we would be exporting uh officers and a culture that um has left many uh 60 up to 60 people dead in the last one year from violent policing of protests this will be the eighth unbacked peacekeeping mission to Haiti since the early 1990s and Kenya will be looking to avoid the pitfalls of past interventions which recently have been marred with widespread reports of sexual exploitation and by the introduction of cola from un Pace Capers we’re going to talk more about this now with Haiti expert Diego durin from International crisis group who joins me on the set Diego Thank you so much for coming in uh the gangs are trying to deter this this International Security Mission from embarking into Haiti how do you see it playing out if and when the Kenyon forces finally do come in well the gangs have been overpowering the police uh for a couple of years they have been extending their their foothold in the capital and other regions but they have been facing a police uh force that is very weak that is uh a lot of of uh police officers are corrupt and that is under stuffed once this police and most the special units of the police have the backing of a well-trained and skilled foreign security Personnel they could have the ability to to regain the upper hand and start uh fighting more effectively the gangs and what pushed the different gangs to to make this non-aggression pact amongst themselves and to forge this united front now against the officials since 2020 there was two coalitions uh that regroup the most powerful uh gangs operating in the capital and that were confronting themselves to have the military ofmany and the concrete control of the capital and now they have raised their differences because uh the main motive for them to uh be together and to work together in this in this Coalition that is called VI emble is to deter the the foreign countries that have expressed their willingness to participate in the mission from doing so well I guess that is the real question I mean do you think that this united front uh will will step down step away if if a new Administration actually comes up to face them well it is not certain what the the what will be the the shift or the continuation in the strategies of the gangs once the mission will start being deployed in Haiti they know that if a foreign force is coming to back the police they will be facing a force that is stronger than them and that’s why they are doing everything they can to deter the country the foreign countries from moving ahead with these plans to deploy the mission and yet what do the gangs want because in the meantime they’ve been looing they’ve been burning down Health Facilities businesses private residences upending the lives of thousands of people do the gangs think that they can run the country better there are some gang leaders ER very few of them who have political Ambitions but most of them are just trying to seow chaos in the capital and to paralyze the country to be able to be granted a seat in the table B to seek an amnesty for all their crimes and to have some kind of indirect representation in the next Administration what do you think is going to happen do you feel that Haiti is heading to some sort of allout War let’s say that the Kenyan troops do finally come in The Gangs take them on with full force so what will happen it is likely that the gangs will try to uh challenge the mission and see how prepared they are for combat but once h hopefully they will understand that they are facing uh a more trained uh force that overpowers them they will try to seek a way out and um many young er uh people who have joined these armed structures will be trying to to leave these gangs because they are not fighting for a political ideology or for ethnic reasons they’re just there because they don’t have any Prospect in life and joining a gang just gives them some money to put for on the table at the end of the day the problems of course are bigger than than even the infighting within the gangs that we’ve been seeing fighting that we might see with the Kenyan troops when they come but what about the Haitian institutions are people’s basic needs being met or has that completely Fallen by the wayside the Haitian State institutions are on the verge of collaps but there are still some institutions that are working for example the customs and some Ministries and right now there is a new transitional government that is taking over after prime minister HRI resigned a couple of months ago uh but this new government will will need a a massive huge um a backing from the International Community to be able to organize elections restore security and try to get uh the state institutions uh back in in in place in in addition into financial support from the International Community do you think that International sanctions could help yes it’s very important that the sanctions regimes that have been adopted by the United Nations and by the European Union be um used more strategically because until now there are only five gang leaders from the operating in the capital that have been sanctioned the sanctions and travel ban and economic sanctions don’t have extremely limited impact on gang leaders it is a urgent that the International Community issues sanctions on members of the elites that have um given H backing and support H in different ways to The Gangs to be able to sever these links between the elites and the illegal armed groups Diego thank you again so much for coming in that’s Haiti expert Diego durin from the international crisis group

The UN-backed Kenyan-led security mission — in which the United States is providing logistical support, but not boots on the ground — is supposed to help Haiti’s weak, outgunned police force defeat the powerful criminal gangs. There had been speculation that a first contingent of the Kenyan-led force might arrive in the destitute Caribbean nation this week, to coincide with Kenyan President William Ruto’s state visit to Washington. Gangs control much of the capital, Port-au-Prince, as well as swathes of the country, and have long terroized people with random shootings, kidnappings and sexual violence. As Haiti desperately awaits the first members of a Kenyan-led multinational force tasked with ending the stranglehold of powerful and ultra-violent gangs, FRANCE 24’s Genie Godula is joined by Diego Da Rin Consultant, Haiti Expert, International Crisis Group Consultant for Latin America and Caribbean.

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