
Haiti’s Gangs Grow Stronger as Kenyan-Led Force Prepares to Deploy
Gang leaders with suspected links to the 2021 Haitian president’s assassination now control key infrastructure, and pose a major threat to the incoming Kenya-led force.
They have a stranglehold on the country’s infrastructure, from police stations to seaports. They have chased hundreds of thousands of people from the capital. And they are suspected of having ties to the 2021 assassination of Haiti’s president.
Western diplomats and officials say the influence and capability of many Haitian gangs are evolving, making them ever more threatening to the Kenyan-led multinational police force soon deploying to Haiti as well as the fragile transitional council trying to set a path for elections.
With their arrival just days away, the 2,500 police officers will confront a better equipped, funded, trained and unified gang force than any mission previously deployed to the Caribbean nation, security experts say.
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A correction was made on
May 21, 2024
:
An earlier version of this article misstated the amount of cocaine that diplomats said was stolen from the Haitian gang leader Johnson André. It was two tons of cocaine, not 2,000 tons,
2,500 police officers are going into Haiti? Since when?