As UN meets, Haitians express hopelessness at finding an international solution to gang crisis
As world leaders discuss the future of efforts to wrangle the gangs strangling Haiti, Haitians are expressing hopelessness over an international response to the tide of violence
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — As world leaders meeting in the United Nations this week discuss the future of efforts to rein in the gangs strangling Haiti, Haitians are expressing hopelessness that an international response can turn the tide of violence.
Thus far, a UN-backed force of 400 police from Kenya and about two dozen Jamaican officers have done little to quell the country's gangs, which have terrorized the country since the 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse. World leaders have been discussing the next steps in a convoluted efforts to restore order to the Caribbean nation, and Kenya this weekend pledged 600 more officers.
The United States has floated the idea of a U.N. peacekeeping force, but the idea was considered too controversial given the introduction of cholera and sexual abuse cases that occurred the last time U.N. troops were in Haiti.
The deployment of Kenyan forces was, in part, to avoid tensions that may be sparked by sending another U.N. peacekeeping mission.
