Two months after the deployment of the first Kenyan police officers in Haiti, the inhabitants of Port-au-Prince are beginning to lose patience with the lack of concrete results from the multinational force that came to stem the epidemic of violence that the country is experiencing.
“I thought they were going to restore peace and support our police officers who were overwhelmed by events,” Watson Laurent, a resident of the capital, told AFP.
“Two months later, the gangs’ exactions continue and the bandits are not even worried,” continues this 39-year-old motorcycle taxi driver, exasperated. “I can’t sleep at night because of the explosions.”
On the streets of Port-au-Prince, frustration is palpable as residents grow exhausted by the relentless violence of gangs accused of murder, looting, rape and kidnapping.
“This situation has gone on for too long,” says Yverose Amazan, a shopkeeper. “The MMAS (multinational force, editor’s note) officers need to get to work,” she exclaims.
The United Nations-backed Multinational Security Support Mission is to help Haitian police restore order in the small, poor Caribbean country, plagued by crime and decades of political crises and natural disasters.
Two contingents have been deployed to the country so far – the first 200 Kenyan police officers in late June, followed by another 200 in mid-July – and some 600 more are yet to arrive.
Together with local authorities, they are working to “take back all the areas that are controlled by the gangs, house by house, neighborhood by neighborhood,” Haiti’s new prime minister, Garry Conille, said in mid-July.
Timid progress
A perspective that nevertheless seems distant.
While the Kenyan police announced on Monday that they had “recorded significant progress”, notably mentioning the resumption of “essential infrastructure”, residents and observers are much more circumspect.
Most of the improvements in the fight against gangs were made even before the deployment of the multinational force, says Diego Da Rin, an expert with the International Crisis Group.
And the only major operation in which the mission participated was a failure, according to the local press. At the end of July, the “400 mawozo” gang seized the commune of Ganthier, nearly 30 km east of the capital, after months of resistance by the local population.
When Haitian and Kenyan police arrived, they found the streets deserted, with gang members either hiding or having left the city before they arrived, only to return after they left.
“They currently do not have the manpower or equipment to launch a real offensive against the gangs,” Da Rin said.
Lack of resources
The episode also illustrates the change in strategy carried out by certain gangs, who are now extending their attacks outside the capital, while the authorities do not have the means to secure the reconquered territories.
The mission is expected to eventually include some 2,500 police officers from Bangladesh, Benin and Jamaica, but their arrival has been delayed and funding for the mission, estimated at $600 million per year, is slow to materialise.
The United States, the main contributor, has provided more than $300 million in funds and equipment, including 12 armored vehicles, to which another 22 will be added in the coming days.
But the rest of the international community is struggling to keep up. Only $21.6 million of $85 million promised has been received so far, the UN said on August 21.
However, according to Diego Da Rin, the progress of the mission “will depend on the quality of training and the type of equipment that the contingents of the different countries will have to operate on the ground.”
Helicopters, for example, will be needed, he believes.
Meanwhile, the humanitarian crisis continues to worsen. After gang attacks on prisons, police stations and critical infrastructure earlier this year forced the resignation of dissident Prime Minister Ariel Henry, the number of displaced people has jumped by 60 percent, according to the UN.