As Haiti awaits UN-backed Kenya-led force, 'state institutions are on verge of collapse'

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00:00 All day today on France 24, we're focusing on the worsening situation in Haiti.

00:06 Gangs have taken over much of that country since the president was assassinated almost

00:10 three years ago.

00:12 That led to violence and destruction in the besieged capital of Port-au-Prince.

00:16 On Friday, three missionaries, including two Americans, were killed in Haiti by gangs.

00:21 Meanwhile, the arrival of a peacekeeping police force from Kenya has been postponed again.

00:27 It's now set to arrive in Haiti in about three weeks' time.

00:30 The peacekeepers have the backing of the UN and the U.S., but human rights organizations

00:35 are concerned about the record of Kenya's police force, as Eliza Herbert explains.

00:44 It's been months since Haiti's latest violent uprising, and the country remains in a dire

00:49 state.

00:50 Thousands of civilians have been chased from the capital, Port-au-Prince, and lawlessness

00:54 abounds as gangs continue to operate.

00:58 Now a new multinational security support mission is seeking to quell the violence.

01:03 2,500 officers are part of a Kenya-led security mission, the first any African nation has

01:09 led outside of the continent.

01:13 Some 1,000 will come from Kenya's paramilitary and police forces, which have a history of

01:18 tackling riots, domestically within their own borders and with U.S. forces in neighbouring

01:23 Somalia, against the extremist Al-Shabaab group.

01:28 The rest of the force will come from countries including Benin, Jamaica, Chile, Chad and

01:33 Nigeria.

01:34 They have taken French classes and are prepared to work in collaboration with Haiti's national

01:39 police force to stabilise the situation on the ground and train them up so they can stand

01:44 on their own two feet, under an ultimate goal of creating security conditions to hold free

01:49 and fair elections.

01:51 The UN has backed the mission and Washington has pledged $300 million in funding.

01:59 But it has not been without controversy.

02:02 Some critics were concerned that Kenyan officers couldn't handle the task.

02:06 Others have cited previous human rights violations.

02:10 The history of the police force in the last two years has been essentially quite brutal

02:17 and the concern has been that we would be exporting officers and a culture that has

02:23 left many, up to 60 people dead in the last one year from violent policing of protests.

02:30 This will be the eighth UN-backed peacekeeping mission to Haiti since the early 1990s and

02:35 Kenya will be looking to avoid the pitfalls of past interventions, which recently have

02:41 been marred with widespread reports of sexual exploitation and by the introduction of cholera

02:47 from UN peacekeepers.

02:49 We're going to talk more about this now with Haiti expert Diego Durin from International

02:54 Crisis Group who joins me on the set.

02:56 Diego, thank you so much for coming in.

02:58 The gangs are trying to deter this international security mission from embarking into Haiti.

03:03 How do you see it playing out if and when the Kenyan forces finally do come in?

03:08 The gangs have been overpowering the police for a couple of years.

03:12 They have been extending their foothold in the capital and other regions, but they have

03:17 been facing a police force that is very weak.

03:21 That is a lot of police officers are corrupt and that is understaffed.

03:28 Once this police and mostly the special units of the police have the backing of a well-trained

03:33 and skilled foreign security personnel, they could have the ability to regain the upper

03:40 hand and start fighting more effectively the gangs.

03:44 What pushed the different gangs to make this non-aggression pact amongst themselves and

03:48 to forge this united front now against the officials?

03:51 Since 2020, there was two coalitions that regrouped the most powerful gangs operating

03:58 in the capital and that were confronting themselves to have the military hegemony and the control

04:04 of the capital.

04:05 Now, they have raised their differences because the main motive for them to be together and

04:13 to work together in this coalition that is called Vivre Ensemble is to deter the foreign

04:20 countries that have expressed their willingness to participate in the mission from doing so.

04:24 Well, I guess that is the real question.

04:26 I mean, do you think that this united front will step down, step away if a new administration

04:33 actually comes up to face them?

04:36 Well, it is not certain what will be the shift or the continuation in the strategies of the

04:44 gangs once the mission will start being deployed in Haiti.

04:48 They know that if a foreign force is coming to back the police, they will be facing a

04:54 force that is stronger than them.

04:56 And that's why they are doing everything they can to deter the country, the foreign

05:00 countries from moving ahead with these plans to deploy the mission.

05:04 And yet what do the gangs want?

05:06 Because in the meantime, they've been looting, they've been burning down health facilities,

05:09 businesses, private residences, upending the lives of thousands of people.

05:14 Do the gangs think that they can run the country better?

05:17 There are some gang leaders, very few of them who have political ambitions, but most of

05:22 them are just trying to sow chaos in the capital and to paralyze the country to be able to

05:28 be granted a seat in the table, to seek an amnesty for all their crimes and to have some

05:34 kind of indirect representation in the next administration.

05:38 What do you think is going to happen?

05:40 Do you feel that Haiti is heading to some sort of all out war?

05:44 Let's say that the Kenyan troops do finally come in, the gangs take them on with full

05:48 force.

05:49 So what will happen?

05:50 It is likely that the gangs will try to challenge the mission and see how prepared they are

05:57 for combat.

05:58 But once, hopefully, they will understand that they are facing a more trained force

06:05 that overpowers them, they will try to seek a way out.

06:09 And many young people who have joined these armed structures will be trying to leave these

06:17 gangs because they are not fighting for a political ideology or for ethnic reasons.

06:24 They're just there because they don't have any prospect in life.

06:28 And joining a gang just gives them some money to put forward on the table at the end of

06:32 the day.

06:33 The problems, of course, are bigger than even the infighting within the gangs that we've

06:37 been seeing, fighting that we might see with the Kenyan troops when they come.

06:40 But what about the Haitian institutions?

06:42 Are people's basic needs being met or has that completely fallen by the wayside?

06:47 The Haitian state institutions are on the verge of collapse, but there are still some

06:54 institutions that are working, for example, the customs and some ministries.

07:00 And right now there is a new transitional government that is taking over after Prime

07:04 Minister Henry resigned a couple of months ago.

07:09 But this new government will need massive, huge backing from the international community

07:19 to be able to organize elections, restore security, and try to get the state institutions

07:26 back in place.

07:29 In addition to financial support from the international community, do you think that

07:32 international sanctions could help?

07:34 Yes.

07:35 It is very important that the sanctions regimes that have been adopted by the United Nations

07:41 and by the European Union be used more strategically, because until now there are only five gang

07:49 leaders operating in the capital that have been sanctioned.

07:52 The sanctions, the travel ban and economic sanctions, have extremely limited impact on

07:58 gang leaders.

07:59 So it is urgent that the international community issues sanctions on members of the elites

08:05 that have given backing and support in different ways to the gangs to be able to sever these

08:13 links between the elites and the illegal armed groups.

08:15 Diego, thank you again so much for coming in.

08:17 That's Haiti expert Diego Durin from the International Crisis Group.

08:20 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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