HAITI | Kenyan advance party arrive in Haiti to Recon for troop deployment on May 26

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, May 21, 2023 - Ahead of the expected arrival of Kenyan troops in Haiti on May 26, an advanced delegation of officers who arrived in Haiti on Monday  began an inspection in the capital on Tuesday, in order to assess the area where its military will be stationed while in Port-au-Prince.

The Nairobi delegation plans to review the construction of a base that will house its troops, in addition to the international airport in Port-au-Prince.

Members of a Kenya Police Reconnaissance Unit, the Rapid Deployment Force and the Special Operations Group are expected to arrive in the Caribbean nation on 26 May.

A total of 200 officers will make up the advance party of the African contingent.

Many of these soldiers, reports the daily Haiti Libre, have a reputation for having fought the terrorist group Al-Shabaab on the Kenya-Somalia border.

Sunday, Ambassador Dennis Hankins and HNP Director General Frantz Elbé witnessed the arrival at Toussaint Louverture Airport of a State Department-contracted flight delivering 10 armored vehicles to support the Haitian National Police in its fight against armed gangs.… pic.twitter.com/X7EY0V5Nrx

— U.S. Embassy Haiti (@USEmbassyHaiti) May 21, 2024

Recently, the US ambassador to Haiti, Dennis Hankins, declared that this force from the African continent will be the first to deploy here at the end of this month, although in reality Washington was the first to arrive in the Caribbean nation with its uniformed soldiers and contractors, known here as mercenaries.

So far, seven countries from Africa, Asia and the Caribbean have indicated their willingness to provide men for the Multinational Security Support Mission to combat gangs in Haiti.

Kenya - which offered to lead the operations - Benin and Chad among the Africans; Bahamas, Jamaica and Barbados among the Caribbean countries, as well as Bangladesh. Suriname recently announced that it will send a group of troops.

However, local media reported that Washington has successfully landed many military aircraft at Toussaint Louverture International Airport since April, so Kenya is not actually the first country to deploy.

More than 100 aircraft from the air force and leased by the US State Department are expected to arrive.

Washington, according to some media reports, is considered to be to blame for the economic, political and social chaos in the Caribbean country, which it intervened militarily in 1915 and supposedly abandoned in 1934.

Most of the arms and ammunition used by the gang members who are martyring the population come from the United States.

The situation in Haiti, a country of 11.6 million people, began deteriorating in late February as well-armed gangs that control most of Port-au-Prince and much of the country went on a rampage they said was aimed at toppling then prime minister Ariel Henry.

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