Jamaican and Belizean Troops in Haiti!
Port-au-Prince, Sep 12 (EFE).-
The first Jamaican and Belizean troops for the Multinational Security Support Mission arrived in Port-au-Prince on Thursday to join the 400 Kenyan officers already in Haiti.
A contingent of 20 soldiers and four police officers from Jamaica arrived at Toussaint Louverture International Airport in the Haitian capital six months after the country announced its support for the mission.
These troops are part of the total of 200 that the Jamaican government has committed to sending to Haiti and who will provide command, planning and logistics support for the deployment of the force.
Two soldiers from Belize also arrived Thursday in Port-au-Prince on a flight organized by the United States as part of the mission, an operation that has the approval of the United Nations and is expected to be made up of at least 2,500 soldiers and police officers.
The deployment in Haiti will take place gradually, and by the end of September, countries such as the Bahamas, Barbados, Bangladesh, Chad, Benin and Belize are expected to send troops to the country.
Almost three months after the Kenyan police began arriving, the security situation in Haiti has not seen any significant improvement.
Just a week ago, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited the Caribbean country, where he promised to work during the next UN General Assembly to increase international contributions to the mission and ensure the renewal of the Security Council’s mandate for the deployment.
“We do need more personnel to sustain and carry out the objectives of this mission,” said Blinken about the operation to which the US has contributed more than $300 million.
In October 2023, the UNSC approved the dispatch of a support mission to the Haitian National Police in response to the request made a year earlier by the authorities of the Caribbean country to eradicate violence by armed gangs.
Last year, violence killed and injured people 8,000 in Haiti, where criminal groups have come to control 80 percent of the capital, as well as other areas of the country, according to UN figures.
In the first half of 2024, the victims of violence amounted to almost 3,900, according to a report by the UN Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH). EFE
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