Haiti has welcomed a Kenyan offer to lead a 1,000-strong multinational force to bolster security in the Caribbean country “with great interest.”
“Haiti appreciates this expression of African solidarity,” Foreign Minister Jean Victor Geneus said in a statement on Sunday.
“We look forward to welcoming Kenya’s proposed evaluation mission,” the statement continued.
Kenya announced on Saturday that it was ready to send 1,000 police officers to Haiti to assist in training and assisting their Haitian counterparts in combating the violent gangs that have taken control of much of the capital, Port-au-Prince.
“Kenya has accepted to positively consider leading a Multi-National Force to Haiti,” Foreign Minister Alfred Mutua said in a statement.
A Kenyan-led deployment would still require a UN Security Council mandate as well as a formal agreement from local authorities.
The council has asked Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to present a report on possible Haiti options, including a UN-led mission, by mid-August.
US diplomats have been actively seeking a country to lead a multinational force.
Kenya, according to Mutua, will send an “evaluation mission” to Haiti in the coming weeks.
Kenya, regarded as a democratic anchor in East Africa, has participated in peacekeeping operations in its own region, including the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Somalia.
Gangs in Haiti control roughly 80 percent of Port-au-Prince, and violent crimes including kidnappings for ransom, carjackings, rapes, and armed thefts are common.
With a weak government and overburdened security forces, the country has faced escalating humanitarian, political, and security crises.
Both Prime Minister Ariel Henry and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres have called for international intervention for nearly a year. Up to now, no country had stepped forward.
From 2004 to 2017, a UN peacekeeping mission was stationed in Haiti, but it was withdrawn after a cholera outbreak linked to infected UN personnel from Nepal killed 9,500 people.
The US ordered non-essential embassy personnel and their families to leave Haiti as soon as possible this week.
According to the Christian aid organisation for which she works, a young American nurse and her infant child were kidnapped in Haiti on Thursday.
