“It will be very quick. We can already see that in the coming weeks we will have a second contingent,” Conille said in an interview in Washington, where he is meeting with White House and State Department officials.
Haiti has long been wracked by gang violence, but the situation deteriorated sharply in late February when armed groups launched coordinated attacks in Port-au-Prince, claiming they wanted to overthrow then-prime minister Ariel Henry.
The first group of about 200 Kenyan police, part of a mission approved by the U.N. Security Council, arrived in June to work with Haitian police to stabilize the country, where gangs control about 80 percent of the capital.
Conille declined to say how many officers might arrive in the next wave, citing security concerns.
“But I can already assure you that there is planning underway to gradually strengthen the presence” of those already in Haiti, he added.
Conille spoke to AFP shortly after meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken about the mission, to which Washington is providing logistical and financial support.
Unelected and unpopular, Henry resigned amid the violence, handing power to a transitional council that named Conille interim prime minister in May. He was sworn in last month.
The transitional government’s task is monumental: to alleviate the political, security and humanitarian crises devastating the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere and prepare the way for the first elections since 2016.
Violence in Port-au-Prince has affected food security and access to humanitarian aid, with gangs accused of abuses including killings, rapes, looting and kidnappings.
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