One year on, UN-backed Haiti mission still unable to launch major offensive operations against gangs

now 24 Jamaican military and police officers are due to arrive in Haiti today it's part of the 200 Personnel Kingston has pledge the country the deployment is part of the International Security Mission aimed at restoring order in one of the world's poorest states overrun by gangs Kenya is the only country so far to have deployed police to Haiti 400 officers are in the country out of a pledge of a thousand Kam Knight has a story 6 months after pledging report to the Kenyan Le mission in Haiti Jamaica is sending a first wave of troops the Jamaican president announced that only 24 military and police Personnel would land in Haiti on Thursday and lay the groundwork for further deployments Haiti is the example of what could happen if states do not take the problem seriously and put in place the measures and resources necessary to bring the problem under control in March Jamaica formerly pledged 200 Personnel for the UN backed Mission but the deployment has faced setbacks it's led by Kenya which so far has sent 400 police officers out of a total pledge of a thousand working with Haitian police the Kenyan officers are working towards taking back key sites that have fallen under the control of gangs including the airports and sea ports but almost 3 months into the mission the security situation has improved gangs are in control of 80% of the capital with violence having spread to other areas across the country the UN says more than 3,000 people have been killed from January to May and the crisis has left more than half a million people homeless part of the problem is funding the international mission is expected to cost around $600 million per year but only 85 million have been pledged by country so far on a visit to Haiti last week Secretary of State Anthony blinkin urged other countries to provide more financial support and called for transitional authorities to move quickly towards Democratic elections we can now bring in Diego Darin uh Haiti specialist at the international crisis group uh thank you very much for joining us here on France 24 today just how effective are these 24 Jamaican police officers going to be I mean I know that this is the first deployment but in the grand scheme of things well it is it is sure that 24 security Personnel are not going to make such a difference but the fact here is that H the deployment of other countries besides Kenya are starting so this was devised as a multinational Mission with Kenya leading the force but with other countries and very importantly neighboring countries from the Caribbean to join into this effort so this these two two dozen officers ER are going to as the Prime Minister Jamaican prime minister said lay the command structure and prepare all practical issues as for example that there is enough and appropriate facilities to host the Personnel that Jamaica and other Caribbean countries will deploy in Haiti Kenya has 400 officers in Haiti out of a pledge of a thousand do we know how that Mission has gone so far well the first contingent of Kenyan officers arrived about two months and a half ago another contingent arrived in July but so far these 400 this about 400 Kenyan officers are not enough to really launch forceful and ambitious operations ofensive operations Against The Gangs ER the mission still has very limited capacity to implement its mandate which is to help the Haitian police to restore order in the capital not only to protect key infrastructure but to really go after the gangs to engage in offensive operations in their strongholds to effectively diminish the the the power that they have uh from what we understand uh PTO Prince has been pretty much largely under control uh of the gangs is that still the case today that the the situation in the capital is that bad yes for years H and by the way since the past peacekeeping operation the UN peacekeeping operation withdrew its Personnel in 2017 The Gangs have been expanding their foothold not only in the capital but in other regions and now the gangs ER and this is according to uh United Nations figures control or have some influence in about 80% of the capital and this is mainly in the areas where the most uh critical infrastructure is located and where uh the economic activities in the capital are concentrated I know that we had Kenya that has deployed uh officers now of course Jamaica is deploying officers uh to Haiti uh but these are officers who don't speak French so how do you work alongside uh Haitian police to restore order when you know communication at one point will will be a problem well of course this is one question that uh pops up every time that there is a security Mission uh with officers or security Personnel coming from many countries to a country where H sometimes they do not speak the language Kenyan officers have been H undergoing a uh training in languages mostly in French to be able to at least have the most basic um uh communication with its counterparts in in bans is there a timeline in place for this Mission do we know how long these security Personnel have to assist uh uh State Police Kenyan State Police to restore order the mission was authorized last October so almost a year ago by the security Council and it and it the security Council gave it a a mandate of one year now there is right now at the in New York at the security Council level the discussions will begin uh very soon on the renewal of this mission that is not open-ended but it is intended to be a a shortterm mission to help the haian police regain the upper hand and to to help the the haian authorities to organize elections next year Diego Dar thank you so much for joining us on the program today