Kenyan police patrolled the streets of Port-Au-Prince in full gear and using armored vehicles on Friday.
Residents expressed cautious hope after a first contingent of Kenyan police officers arrived in the Caribbean country, as part of a long-delayed mission to help police fight armed gangs.
A few hundred Kenyan police officers landed in Haiti this week to lead a United Nations-ratified mission set to number over 2,500 – though it remains unclear when the remaining forces could arrive.
Gang leader Jimmy “Barbecue” Cherizier, who has acted as a spokesman for the gang alliance, said he would fight against foreign forces within the country.
The mission’s initial 12-month mandate is set to expire in October.
Previous missions in Haiti have left behind slain civilians, a deadly cholera outbreak and a sexual abuse scandal, for which reparations were never made.
The force was requested by Haiti’s previous government in 2022, but gangs have since united under a common alliance and taken over swathes of the capital, bringing indiscriminate killings, ransom kidnappings, mass sexual violence and paralyzing the movement of people and goods.
