Global Courant
Kenyan Defense Minister Aden Duale says the country is ready to go to Haiti to help combat gang violence.
The United States and Kenya have signed a defense deal that will provide the East African country with resources and support for security operations as it volunteers to lead an international mission to violence-wracked Haiti.
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Kenyan Defense Minister Aden Duale signed the agreement on Monday during a meeting in the Kenyan capital Nairobi, which will determine the countries’ defense ties for the next five years.
“Today’s signing of the Defense Cooperation Framework between our two countries reinforces the importance of our strategic partnership with Kenya,” Austin said after the meeting, according to a read out by the Pentagon.
The US defense chief underlined Kenya’s role in the fight against Al-Shabab, an al-Qaeda-linked armed group active in East Africa.
He also thanked the Kenyan government for volunteering to take charge of a proposed multinational force to Haiti, which is struggling to respond to months of escalating gang violence.
Gangs control most of the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince, and Haitians are facing a barrage of attacks, including kidnappings for ransom and sexual violence. Thousands of people have been driven from their homes.
In October last year, Haiti’s de facto leader, Prime Minister Ariel Henry, called on the international community to help set up a “specialized force” to quell the violence.
The request for an international mission to Haiti had the support of the US and the United Nations, but a deployment has been stalled for months because no country had agreed to lead such a mission to the country.
Several rights activists have also raised questions about the prospect of foreign intervention, saying past missions have caused more harm than good and calling on countries to ensure adequate safeguards are in place.
However, in July, Kenya said it was willing to lead a “multinational force” in Haiti – provided the mission receives a UN Security Council mandate – to help train and assist Haitian police to “restore normality.”
Last week, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged the UN Security Council to approve the mission, which he said would be ready to deploy “within months”.
Blinken also said Washington would provide “robust financial and logistical assistance” for the proposed deployment.
“We urge the international community to pledge additional personnel, equipment, logistics, training and financing. Without these contributions we cannot be successful,” he added.
Kenya has pledged to send 1,000 security officers to Haiti to combat gang violence.
Duale said Monday his country is ready to go to Haiti and cited Kenya’s “very long history of global peacekeeping” in Kosovo, neighboring Somalia and Congo.
However, human rights activists have raised concerns about the deployment, citing a history of human rights abuses during security operations in the African country.
