Haiti

Kenya dispatched a new contingent of police officers to Haiti on Monday, moving to reinforce an overstretched multinational mission that has struggled to contain the country’s powerful armed gangs. The deployment comes as Haiti remains mired in a profound political and security crisis, with large swathes of the capital under gang control.

The Security Council vote was an acknowledgment that the police mission it once backed had failed to wrest back control of the beleaguered Caribbean nation.

Weapons smuggled from Florida are empowering the country’s militias and enabling them to challenge a fragile government

Haiti's transitional council has moved to oust Prime Minister Garry Conille after five months, naming businessman Alix Didier Fils-Aime as his replacement, according to an official bulletin seen Sunday. The nine-member council agreed the decision by consensus on November 8, as the political crisis threatens further turmoil in the Caribbean nation.

The UN extended its authorization of a multinational policing mission in Haiti led by Kenya on Monday amid reports of thousands of deaths due to gang violence this year and rising levels of acute hunger in the country. The transitional council governing Haiti said that a chronic lack of funding has hobbled the mission so far and called for the force to be transitioned into a UN peacekeeping mission, a plan the body sidestepped in its adopted text after opposition by China and Russia. 

This will bring the Kenyan contingent helping Haitian police fight gangs up to 1,000.

But can it make a difference?

Garry Conille was named Haiti’s new prime minister Tuesday evening, nearly a month after a coalition within a fractured transitional council had chosen someone else for the position.

An advance group of Kenyan officers, part of a larger UN-backed ‘support mission’ to stabilize Haiti, landed in Port-au-Prince

Haiti's transitional ruling council, which is leading the Caribbean nation following the resignation of its prime minister amid a wave of gang violence, chose politician Edgard Leblanc Fils as its head on Tuesday.

Ariel Henry resigned Thursday as prime minister of Haiti, leaving the way clear for a new government to be formed in the Caribbean country, which has been wracked by gang violence that killed or injured more than 2,500 people from January to March.