(Nairobi) The United States and Kenya signed a defense agreement on Monday that will allow the East African country to obtain resources and support for security deployments as it prepares to lead a multinational peacekeeping mission in Haiti to combat gang violence.
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Kenyan Defense Minister Aden Duale signed the agreement during a meeting in the Kenyan capital Nairobi. The agreement guides the two countries’ defense relations for the next five years as the war in East Africa against the al-Qaeda-linked extremist group al-Shabab intensifies.
PHOTO KHALIL SENOSI, ASSOCIATED PRESS
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Kenyan Defense Minister Aden Dual hold copies of the signed agreement to help Haiti September 25 in Nairobi, Kenya.
Mr. Austin thanked Kenya for volunteering to lead the multinational force in Haiti and reiterated that the US government would work with Congress to secure the US$100 million in funding it has committed to. paid on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.
Austin said the rest of the world should follow Kenya’s commitment to global security and “step up and provide more personnel, equipment, support, training and funding.”
Kenya has pledged to send 1,000 security agents to Haiti to combat gang violence in a mission that is awaiting formal approval from the UN Security Council but has received support from the UN and the United States.
Mr. Duale said his country was ready to deploy to Haiti and cited Kenya’s “very long history of maintaining global peace” in neighboring Kosovo, Somalia and Congo.
Human rights activists, meanwhile, have expressed concerns over the deployment, citing a history of human rights violations during security operations in the country.
Some security analysts are concerned that there is a language barrier between the deployment of Kenya, an English- and Swahili-speaking country, and the population of Haiti, where the official languages are French and Creole.
Regarding the regional fight against al-Shabab, Austin said he had met with Somalia’s president and both agreed that the country had made “significant progress over the last year against al-Shabab.
Mr. Austin also said that “progress is not always in a straight line.”
“So we may see things improve significantly one day and maybe we’ll see challenges the next.” »
Somalia last week asked the UN to suspend the withdrawal of 3,000 troops in the second phase for three months to allow the country’s forces to regroup. Somalia is expected to assume full security responsibilities by the end of 2024.