P-au-P, 09 from 2024 [AlterPresse] — Preparations, still underway for the deployment of the Multinational Security Support Mission (Mmas) in Haiti appear to be accelerating, according to information gathered by the online agency AlterPresse.
Several flights of US military aircraft, carrying contracted civilian personnel, equipment and supplies, landed at the Port-au-Prince international airport, which no longer receives commercial planes since the sharp escalation of terror armed gangs, in early March 2024, according to national and international media reports, citing the Southern Command of the United States Army.
This staff should work “alongside Haitian airport officials, to secure the equipment and supplies that have arrived in Haiti,” point out several foreign media.
American military planes have landed almost daily in Port-au-Prince in recent days.
Facilities are reportedly being built in Port-au-Prince to accommodate Mmas police officers.
A first contingent of Kenyan police officers should arrive at the end of May 2024 in Haiti, according to information relayed in the press.
A meeting took place this Tuesday, May 7, 2024 between Ambassador Gandy Thomas, ad interim permanent representative of Haiti to the Organization of American States (Oea), and Lazarus O. Amayo, ambassador of the Republic of Kenya to the United States of America.
This meeting is part of the follow-up to the resolution, adopted by the Permanent Council of the OAS at its regular session of November 17, 2023, aimed at “providing integrated assistance to Haiti in terms of humanitarian aid, elections, strengthening democracy, protection of human rights and integrated development in collaboration with Mmas”.
Ambassadors Thomas and Amayo discussed the follow-ups and modalities linked to the deployment of the Mmas, as well as the role that the Oea could play.
The deployment of the Mmas would become more and more essential, given the rise in crime on the territory of Haiti, in the opinion of several sectors.
In the context of the appointment of the Presidential Transitional Council, where it is represented, despite a prior approach by the de facto government, the private business sector requested the deployment “in a relatively short time” of the Multinational Security Support Mission (Mmas) in Haitiin correspondence dated April 15, 2024, addressed to the President of Kenya, William Ruto.
To justify their request, the Haitian business associations highlight the lack of adequate human and material resources of the Haitian security forces, “to undertake the arduous task of immediately restoring security, in order to allow the transitional government to implement implements its roadmap.
In the absence of deployment of the Mmas in Haiti, mandated by the UN Security Council, alongside a long-term political solution, “the situation will remain extremely difficult”warned the executive director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the Egyptian Ghada Fathi Ismail Waly, during an intervention before the Security Council of the United Nations (UN). ), on Monday April 22, 2024, attended by AlterPresse.
The deployment of Mmas has been authorized by the United Nations Security Council since Monday October 2, 2023following a robust request for assistance, made on Friday October 7, 2022, by the de facto government of Ariel Henry in favor of the Haitian National Police (Pnh) in the fight against armed gangs.
From January to March 2024, more than 2,500 people have been killed or injured due to armed gang violencean increase of 53% compared to the quarter from October to December 2023, according to a report from the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti (Binuh), published on Friday April 19, 2024.
In total, more than 5,000 people were displaced, following several armed attacks that occurred between April 25 and May 5, 2024 in the commune of Delmas, particularly in the district of Delmas 24 and in Solino, according to data provided by the Organization International Organization for Migration (IOM).
These internally displaced people headed towards the municipalities of Port-au-Prince, Delmas, Croix-Des-Bouquets and Tabarre, she adds.
Among them, 51% found refuge with host families, while 49% settled in ten sites, including six new sites and four existing sites, specifies the IOM. [emb rc apr 09/05/2024 12:55]
