NATIONAL NEWS

US ambassador visits Haiti to meet new leaders and Kenyan police helping to curb gang violence

Jul 22, 2024, 7:47 AM | Updated: 8:40 pm

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, second right, steps off a U.S. Air F...

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, second right, steps off a U.S. Air Force plane upon arrival in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday, July 22, 2024. Thomas-Greenfield is scheduled to hold talks with the country's transitional presidential council and new Prime Minister Garry Conille during the day-long trip. (Roberto Schmidt/Pool via AP)
Credit: ASSOCIATED PRESS

(Roberto Schmidt/Pool via AP)

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations traveled to Haiti on Monday to meet leaders of the new transitional government and the Kenyan police who are the vanguard of a U.N.-backed force meant to help the country’s national police curb widespread gang violence.

A senior U.S. administration official said Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield’s one-day visit also seeks to encourage action on Haiti’s humanitarian crisis and political reform leading to democratic elections in 2026.

The ambassador will make two major announcements related to Haiti’s security and humanitarian crises, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity ahead of the visit.

Gangs have grown in power since the July 7, 2021, assassination of President Jovenel Moïse and are now estimated to control up to 80% of the capital, Port-au-Prince, and have spread into surrounding areas. The surge in killings, rapes and kidnappings has led to a violent uprising by civilian vigilante groups.

There has been wide international support for the new transitional government led by Prime Minister Garry Conille, a former U.N. development specialist who arrived in the country in early June. Earlier this month, he told the U.N. Security Council that the Kenyan police will be crucial to helping control the country’s gangs and moving toward democratic elections.

According to U.N. agencies, the violence has displaced 580,000 people, more than half of whom are children, and resulted in 4 million people facing food insecurity.

In a signal of support for the U.N. mission to Haiti and the Kenyan police, Thomas-Greenfield will visit the police force’s living complex and meet Conille, members of the transitional presidential council and U.N. and civil society representatives.

Haiti asked for an international force to combat gangs in 2022, and U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appealed for months for a country to lead the force before the Kenyans came forward.

A second Kenyan contingent of 200 police officers landed in Haiti last week, following the first contingent of 200 officers last month. The multinational force will eventually total 2,500 personnel from Kenya, the Bahamas, Bangladesh, Barbados, Benin, Chad and Jamaica. They will be deployed in phases at a cost of some $600 million a year, according to the U.N. Security Council.

The U.S. has provided over $300 million to the force, which Thomas-Greenfield helped establish through a U.N. resolution, the official said, adding that the ambassador played a “central role” in securing international pledges of funding, equipment, and logistical support.

The Kenyan police will train the Haitian national police for joint security operations that have not yet begun, the official said.

___

Follow AP coverage of Haiti at https://apnews.com/hub/haiti

National News

Associated Press

Outgoing North Carolina governor grants 2 pardons, 6 commutations

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper has commuted what have been lengthy sentences served by six criminal offenders in state prisons — five of whom were convicted of murder — and granted pardons to two others. Those pardons of innocence that the outgoing governor also signed on Wednesday give the persons wrongly […]

13 minutes ago

FILE - The chamber of the House of Representatives is seen at the Capitol in Washington, Feb. 28, 2...

Associated Press

The Latest: Republicans take House as Democrats sound alarm over Matt Gaetz as attorney general

Republicans have won enough seats to control the U.S. House, completing the party’s sweep into power and securing their hold on U.S. government alongside President-elect Donald Trump. Meanwhile, Trump’s pick of conservative loyalist Matt Gaetz to serve as attorney general has Democrats sounding the alarm with Sen. Dick Durbin saying Gaetz “would be a disaster” […]

24 minutes ago

FILE - In this photo provided by the U.S. Army National Guard, North Dakota National Guard soldiers...

Associated Press

Natural gas flares sparked 2 wildfires in North Dakota, state agency says

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — Natural gas flares at oil wells sparked two North Dakota wildfires earlier this fall, according to reports from the North Dakota Fire Marshal’s Office. Investigators concluded that flares combined with high winds and extremely dry weather and started a wildfire near the town of Keena and another near New Town, the […]

29 minutes ago

This image provided by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission shows an example of a Medical Ki...

Associated Press

Medical King recalls 222,000 adult bed assistance rails after one reported death

NEW YORK (AP) — About 222,000 adult bed assistance rails are under recall due to entrapment and asphyxia hazards, following one death in a residential care facility. According to a Thursday recall notice published by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, Medical King is recalling three models of its portable bed rails — because users […]

36 minutes ago

FILE - Doris Kearns Goodwin arrives at a HISTORYTalks event in Washington on Sept. 24, 2022. (AP Ph...

Associated Press

Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin to kick off fundraising effort for Ohio women’s suffrage monument

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Doris Kearns Goodwin will kick off a fundraising campaign on Thursday for a monument to women’s suffrage being planned in Ohio. “An Evening With Doris Kearns Goodwin” will take place in the Ohio Statehouse atrium. Megan Wood, CEO and executive director of the Ohio History Connection, the state’s […]

37 minutes ago

FILE - In May of 1985, scores of row houses burn in a fire in the West Philadelphia neighborhood. P...

Associated Press

More human remains from Philadelphia’s 1985 MOVE bombing have been found at a museum

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Additional human remains from a 1985 police bombing on the headquarters of a Black liberation group in Philadelphia have been found at the University of Pennsylvania. The remains are believed to be those of 12-year-old Delisha Africa, one of five children and six adults killed when police bombed the MOVE organization’s headquarters, […]

1 hour ago

US ambassador visits Haiti to meet new leaders and Kenyan police helping to curb gang violence