Prime Min­is­ter Gar­ry Conille has de­scribed as suc­cess­ful, his vis­its to the Unit­ed Arab Emi­rates (UAE) and Kenya, as Haiti seeks to im­prove its so­cio-eco­nom­ic, se­cu­ri­ty and po­lit­i­cal sit­u­a­tion.

“To­day, Haiti is on the verge of es­tab­lish­ing a re­li­able and last­ing part­ner­ship with the Unit­ed Arab Emi­rates in se­cu­ri­ty, en­er­gy, food and tech­no­log­i­cal sur­veil­lance,” Conille told a news con­fer­ence at the diplo­mat­ic lounge of Tou­s­saint Lou­ver­ture In­ter­na­tion­al Air­port, on his re­turn Tues­day.

He told re­porters that the ob­jec­tive of his mis­sion was to es­tab­lish new part­ner­ships with oth­er coun­tries, in­clud­ing the UAE and to meet with Kenyan Pres­i­dent William Ru­to, to help him raise aware­ness among the in­ter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty about the ur­gency of the mul­ti­fac­eted cri­sis in Haiti.

“At the ini­tia­tive of the Vice Pres­i­dent of the Unit­ed Arab Emi­rates, Mo­hammed Ben Rachid Mak­toum, I met with key peo­ple in sev­er­al fields and we dis­cussed the sup­port, ca­pa­ble of help­ing to bet­ter ad­dress Haiti’s se­cu­ri­ty prob­lems.

“A reg­u­lar flow of equip­ment con­tain­ing drones, ar­moured ve­hi­cles, au­to­mat­ic weapons and am­mu­ni­tion, in­clud­ing spare parts, for the Hait­ian Na­tion­al Po­lice (PNH) and the Hait­ian Armed Forces (FAd’H) in the long term,” Conille added.

He said, “in the com­ing weeks, 600 new Kenyan po­lice of­fi­cers will be de­ployed to Haiti, as part of the Multi­na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Sup­port (MSS) Mis­sion”. CARI­COM coun­tries, in­clud­ing Ja­maica and the Ba­hamas, are al­so par­tic­i­pat­ing in the MSS.

Kenya has been lead­ing the MSS un­der a Unit­ed Na­tions Se­cu­ri­ty Coun­cil-sanc­tioned man­date as Haiti seeks to deal with an up­surge in crim­i­nal gang ac­tiv­i­ties ever since the as­sas­si­na­tion of Pres­i­dent Jovenel Moi­se at his pri­vate res­i­dence in Ju­ly 2021.

“I am pleased to an­nounce that an ad­di­tion­al 600 Kenyan po­lice of­fi­cers are com­plet­ing their pre-de­ploy­ment train­ing and will be ready for du­ty next month,” Pres­i­dent Ru­to told re­porters last week,  call­ing on the in­ter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty to “ur­gent­ly” ral­ly be­hind the MSS that is al­so fac­ing a lack of fund­ing.

Prime Min­is­ter Conille said he is con­fi­dent that oth­er coun­tries in the re­gion will fol­low suit. “Thanks to the sup­port of part­ner coun­tries and coun­tries friend­ly to Haiti, it is cer­tain that we will suc­ceed in re­solv­ing the se­cu­ri­ty cri­sis de­fin­i­tive­ly,”  he said, adding “To de­fin­i­tive­ly win the vic­to­ry against crim­i­nal groups, we need a crit­i­cal mass of aid, nec­es­sary hu­man re­sources, equip­ment and ad­e­quate tech­no­log­i­cal tools to strength­en the PNH and the FAd'.

In ad­di­tion, the French-speak­ing Caribbean Com­mu­ni­ty (CARI­COM)  coun­try is al­so mov­ing ahead with plans to stage its first gen­er­al elec­tion with the ap­point­ment of a Pro­vi­sion­al Elec­toral Coun­cil (CEP).

Elec­tions are ex­pect­ed to be held by 2026. Last month, the Coun­cil of Min­is­ters val­i­dat­ed the CEP, which has long been de­mand­ed by the in­ter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty, to pre­pare the coun­try for its first gen­er­al elec­tions since 2016, su­per­vise them, and en­sure the trans­paren­cy of the up­com­ing elec­toral process­es.

PORT AU PRINCE, Haiti, Oct 16, CMC

CMC/af/ir/2024