Prime Min­is­ter Gar­ry Conille is on a vis­it to Kenya and the Unit­ed Arab Emi­rates (UAE) with se­cu­ri­ty of the French-speak­ing Caribbean Com­mu­ni­ty (CARI­COM) coun­try high on his agen­da.

The ob­jec­tive of his vis­it to Kenya is to dis­cuss with Kenyan Pres­i­dent William Ru­to the ar­rival of the next con­tin­gents of po­lice of­fi­cers as part of the de­ploy­ment of the Kenya-led Multi­na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Sup­port (MSS) Mis­sion in Haiti.

“One of the aims of this trip is to go to Kenya to dis­cuss with Pres­i­dent Ru­to how we can speed up the de­ploy­ment of rem­nants of the Kenyan troops as quick­ly as pos­si­ble to con­tin­ue sup­port­ing the na­tion­al po­lice force,” Conille said.

Last week, the Unit­ed Na­tions Se­cu­ri­ty Coun­cil au­tho­rized for an­oth­er year an in­ter­na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty force that is in­tend­ed to help lo­cal po­lice fight gangs and pro­vide law and or­der.

Dur­ing his vis­it to the UAE, Prime Min­is­ter Conille said he would dis­cuss with his coun­ter­part  “how we can find reg­u­lar flows to help the Hait­ian na­tion­al po­lice to com­bat se­cu­ri­ty.”

Ac­cord­ing to the Prime Min­is­ter’s agen­da, oth­er meet­ings are planned with au­thor­i­ties from sev­er­al African coun­tries to dis­cuss the so­cio-se­cu­ri­ty cri­sis and op­por­tu­ni­ties for Haiti.

Last week, mem­bers of the Tem­po­rary An­ti-Gang Unit (UTAG) were de­ployed to track down the mem­bers of the Gran Grif gang blamed for mas­sacre in Pont-Sondé in the cen­tral Art­i­bonite re­gion north-west of the cap­i­tal, Port-au-Prince.

Me­dia re­ports de­scribe Gran Grif as one of the most vi­o­lent of Haiti’s gangs. In Jan­u­ary last year, mem­bers were ac­cused of at­tack­ing a po­lice sta­tion near Port-Sondé and killing six of­fi­cers. It is al­so blamed for forc­ing the clo­sure of a hos­pi­tal serv­ing more than 700,000 peo­ple.

The gang has about 100 mem­bers and has been ac­cused of crimes in­clud­ing mur­der, rape, rob­beries and kid­nap­pings.

Ac­cord­ing to a UN re­port, Pro­phane Vic­tor, a for­mer leg­is­la­tor, who rep­re­sent­ed the Art­i­bonite de­part­ment, be­gan arm­ing young men who even­tu­al­ly formed the Gran Grif gang to se­cure his elec­tion and con­trol over the area.

Last month, the Unit­ed States im­posed sanc­tions on Vic­tor.

PORT AU PRINCE, Haiti, Oct 7, CMC

CMC/af/ir/2024