Kenyan mission in Haiti says one of its cops is missing. Gang videos show lifeless body
Another member of the international armed forced tasked with combating criminal gangs in Haiti has been killed after gangs on Tuesday ambushed three armored vehicles and set fire to them.
The Kenya-led Multinational Security Support mission confirmed in a press statement that one of its police officers was missing, and efforts were under way to locate him. But soon after, the body of a lifeless police officer lying on dirt while dressed in camouflage and being physically assaulted by armed gang members began popping up in WhatsApp message groups.
Gang members also shared videos celebrating the burning of armored vehicles belonging to the Kenyans. A third vehicle that was set ablaze belonged to the Haiti National Police.
The death of the Kenyan policeman, if confirmed, would mark the second time an officer with the security support team has been killed in Haiti since the force began deploying in June.
Earlier this month, the body of Samuel Tompoi Kaetuai, a father of two who was newly married, arrived in Kenya after he was killed in Haiti last month during an operation against the same Gran Grief gang in the Artibonite region responsible for Tuesday's violence.
A Haiti National police source said the agency was still trying to sort out the details of the day's events, which involved violent clashes with the Gran Grif gang throughout the day in the area of Petite Rivière de l'Artibonite.
The attack in the Artibonite region comes amid an ongoing siege of Port-au-Prince by members of a powerful gang coalition. On Tuesday, gangs perched themselves in a community called Clemenceau about 17 minutes from another rural hamlet, Belot, in the mountains of Kenscoff above the capital.
They were planning to launch attacks against the remaining areas they do not control on two fronts from downtown and from the mountains, a source said. The continuing attacks have been accompanied by the burning of buildings and a rise in kidnappings, with gang suspected of abducting people to use as human shields against police drone attacks. Since last month, a government task force has been using explosive drones to target gang strongholds. While the drones have yet to take out any key gang leaders, they have put gangs on the defensive.
The statement from the Kenyan-led security mission said the incident invoving its officer happened at around 4: 30 p.m. A Haiti National Police armored vehicle was patrolling the main Carrefour Paye-Savien road in the Pont-Sondé area of the Artibonite region when it became stuck in a ditch suspected of having been intentionally dug by gangs to trap vehicles, the mission said.
In response, two Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles, or MRAPS, operated by Kenyan police officers, were dispatched from Pont-Sondé to assist in the recovery.
'Unfortunately, during the rescue operation, one of the MRAPs also became stuck, while the other suffered a mechanical failure. As rescue teams attempted to manage the situation, suspected gang members, hiding in ambush, launched an attack,' the release said. 'Following this incident, an officer from the Kenyan contingent of the MSS remains missing. Specialized teams have been deployed to conduct a search and determine his location.'
The mission has struggled to make inroads against gangs, while at the same time facing funding constraints as well as a lack of officers and equipment.
The U.S. State Department said on Wednesday that Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who will meet with several Caribbean leaders in Jamaica, spoke with Kenya President William Ruto on Tuesday ahead of the meeting.
Ruto said on X that Rubio 'reaffirmed the strong U.S. support for the Kenya-led effort to stabilize Haiti.'
Rubio will discuss the dire situation in Haiti with the head of Haiti's Presidential Transitional Council, Fritz Alphonse Jean, in Kingston as well as with other Caribbean leaders.
'We all know and we share the deep commitment to tackling this challenge in Haiti,' Mauricio Claver-Carone, Trump's envoy for Latin America and the Caribbean, said Tuesday in a preview of Rubio's visit for journalists. 'The secretary is obviously very familiar with the challenges posed there. It's an intricate part of the community that the secretary comes from, and obviously something we've been dealing with for a long time; and look to work with our Caribbean neighbors in handling that particular challenge in this regards.'
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