Forces from Jamaica, Belize join Haiti international mission

PORT-AU-PRINCE

Reinforcements from Jamaica and Belize have arrived in Port-au-Prince to assist the Multinational Security Support (MSS) Mission in Haiti, which is charged with wresting back control of the country from criminal gangs.

The contingent, consisting of 20 soldiers and four policemen from Jamaica, as well as two Belizean soldiers, is tasked with helping local police confront gangs and restore order to the Caribbean nation.

The reinforcements join the 400 Kenyan officers deployed earlier this summer, with a total of 2,500 expected over the course of the mission.

The reinforcements were greeted with a ceremony at Toussaint Louverture airport led by MSS commander Godfrey Otunge, who praised their arrival as making the MSS "now a truly multinational mission."

Despite early signs of success, armed gangs maintain control of roughly 80 percent of the capital Port-au-Prince, as well as several national highways.

Gang violence erupted Wednesday in the Cite Soleil commune of Port-au-Prince after two months of peace negotiated by rival gangs in the area.

Haiti has seen about 600,000 people internally displaced in the first six months of 2024 as violent criminal groups vie for power in a vacuum left by a political crisis and weak state authority.