Kenyan and Haitian authorities urged foreign partners on Friday to uphold their commitment to the United Nations-backed peacekeeping force in Haiti.
They stated that the mission need additional resources and that its budget will expire in March 2025.
Kenya, which is leading the campaign to combat gang violence in the Caribbean nation, has dispatched around 400 officers.
They are joined by about two dozen Jamaican police officers and troops, but the total falls far short of the 2,500 offered by several countries, including Chad, Benin, Bangladesh, and Barbados, for the operation.
Kenyan President, William Ruto, who met with Haiti Prime Minister Garry Conille in Nairobi on Friday, said Kenya would deploy 600 additional officers next month.
The U.N. has $85 million in pledges for the mission, of which $68 million has been received.
Mr. Conille asked international partners to send the officers they’d pledged to ensure the “contingent from Kenya has the resources they need.”
He said his regular meetings with the Kenyan commander were filled with words of encouragement that the fight against Haiti’s gangs “is winnable.”
The gangs in Haiti have grown in power since the July 7, 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse and are now estimated to control up to 80% of the capital. The surge in killings, rapes and kidnappings has led to a violent uprising by civilian vigilante groups.
A U.N. Security Council voted unanimously in early October to extend the mandate of the Kenya-led multinational force, after brushing off a call from Haiti to start talks on transforming it into a U.N. peacekeeping mission.
