A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday.
The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer.
Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media.
Photo: AP
Gang violence has left more than 1 million people homeless in the Caribbean country in the past few years, according to the UN, with many crowding into makeshift and unsanitary shelters after gunmen razed their homes.
The Kenya-led force was launched last year and tasked with fighting gangs trying to seize full control of Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince.
Separately, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio yesterday was to travel to the Caribbean, looking for ways forward on violence-torn Haiti and to show support for Guyana in its dispute with Venezuela.
The US’ top diplomat was to travel to Jamaica for a summit of the Caribbean Community before stops today in Guyana and Suriname, the US Department of State said.
At the Caribbean summit, Rubio is to meet with the leaders of Haiti, as well as host Jamaica, Barbados, and Trinidad and Tobago, the state department said.
Rubio has made an exemption to sweeping cuts in US assistance to allow the continuation of US support to the Haiti mission.
The administration of US President Donald Trump has yet to announce new ideas on Haiti, beyond revoking deportation protections for thousands of Haitians living in the US.
Mauricio Claver-Carone, the US special envoy on Latin America, said that Rubio hoped to speak with Caribbean nations to hear their views on Haiti.
“The circumstances are dire,” Claver-Carone told reporters. “We are developing a strategy in order to be able to continue to support the Haitian National Police, in order to deal with this.”
“It is a strategy in development,” he added.
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