PORT-AU-PRINCE (AP) — In most countries, the arrival of armed foreigners would be viewed with suspicion.
But the withdrawal of armed soldiers and police from Haiti in 2017, after nearly two decades on the streets, allowed criminal groups to take control of much of the country. The gangs have committed so many robberies, rapes and kidnappings that Haitians welcomed news Tuesday that the United Nations Security Council had approved sending an international force to Haiti.
News of the vote – which authorizes the deployment of a Kenyan-led force for a year to help combat violent gangs – occupied conversations and radio and television broadcasts.
“It’s like God answered Haiti’s prayers and sent help,” said Wensley Johnson, 40.
Johnson was forced to flee his home this year after gangs ransacked the community where he lived. The settlement was built by people who survived the earthquake that devastated Haiti in 2010. Concerned about the endless gang violence, Johnson sent his son, her stepdaughter, to live with her mother in the country. But the man who works as a bricklayer has trouble taking care of her.
Meanwhile, construction has stopped at several sites because gangs have taken control of those areas and Johnson has been unable to find work.
“Stability would be the key to allowing everyone to return to normal activities,” he said, adding that he was relieved about the future deployment of foreign forces.
“Our armed forces do not have enough personnel to fight the gangs with the weapons at their disposal,” he explained.
The Haitian National Police has launched several operations against gangs, but the department does not have enough resources or personnel and only has about 10,000 active police officers in a country of more than 11 million people.
The Kenya-led mission would be the first force to deploy to Haiti in nearly 20 years. A UN mission that began in 2004 ended in 2017.
The next mission would be commanded by Kenya, with participation from Jamaica, the Bahamas and Antigua and Barbuda. The non-UN mission would be reviewed after nine months and funded by voluntary contributions. The United States pledged to donate up to $200 million. Kenya’s foreign minister has said the force could be deployed in early January.
“They should be here before January,” said Peter John, a 49-year-old carpenter who heard the news through a small radio receiver hanging in his workshop where he builds beds, tables and cabinets.
He fears that gang violence could escalate further.
“All of a sudden one day you hear that some guys are taking over an area, that they’re killing and raping children, that they’re making people homeless, and that’s scary,” he said. “A force that arrives in the country will be able to mount a counterattack.”
He noted that for now, Haitians will continue to crack down on the gangs the only way they know how: through a violent insurgency known as “Bwa Kale,” which has killed nearly 350 people since it began in April.
“The population will kill them. “They make people suffer too much,” he said, referring to the gang members.
According to the UN, more than 2,400 people were murdered, more than 950 kidnapped and another 902 injured between January and mid-August this year. Violence against women and children in particular has increased.
Among the people kidnapped and tortured are friends of Janette Boucher, 37, who owns a women’s and children’s clothing store. She herself escaped a gang attack this year while driving alone. The gangs shot at her car and smashed a window as she sped away and fled.
“Of course I’m happy,” she said about the upcoming mission. “It’s time for Haiti to get real support.”
More than 200,000 Haitians have lost their homes to gangs that burn communities, rape and kill residents to wrest territory from rival gangs.
But previous foreign interventions in Haiti have also made many suspicious and angry.
A UN stabilization mission launched in 2004 was marred by a sexual abuse scandal and the spread of cholera that killed nearly 10,000 people.
“They left a bad memory in Haiti,” said Jean-Pierre Elie, a 60-year-old private teacher, referring to previous missions.
He explained that he supported the new force because “living in Haiti is unbearable,” but he fears the past will repeat itself.
“Sometimes soldiers get out of control,” he said. “It’s like they have no one to answer to. They do whatever they want.”
Johan Lefebvre Chevallier, Haiti’s director of the nonprofit Mercy Corps, said he hoped the foreign military would respect human rights and restore some stability.
“The worst outcome would be that this new intervention would further increase violence and burden those who are suffering the worst from this humanitarian and security crisis,” he said.
Critics of the new mission have also warned of past abuses by the Kenya Police Force, but supporters say the resolution authorizing the force contains strong language to prevent abuses and calls for proper water management.
The U.N. Security Council passed the resolution nearly a year after Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry and 18 senior government officials called for the immediate deployment of a foreign force to combat the country’s gangs.
Coto reported from San Juan, Puerto Rico.