(4 Feb 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Port-au-Prince, Haiti – 4 February 2025
1. Various of soldiers from El Salvador walking on tarmac
2. El Salvador soldiers meeting with Godfrey Otunge, Commander of the Kenya-led Multinational Support Mission in Haiti
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Godfrey Otunge, Commander of the Kenya-led Multinational Support Mission in Haiti: ++AUDIO AS INCOMING/ PARTIALLY OVERLAID BY SHOTS 4 AND 5++
“And that’s the most important thing that here MSS (Multinational Security Support) and the HNP (Haitian National Police) together with the DG (Director general) (of the) HNP, we are destined and we are focused on our trajectory, our focus (is) on the goal, and the meaning is that we are going to succeed, and will succeed.”
4 Various of soldiers from El Salvador
5. Close of El Salvador flag
6. Various of soldiers holding flags
STORYLINE:
A military contingent from El Salvador arrived in Haiti on Tuesday to bolster a U.N.-backed mission led by Kenyan police to help fight gangs that killed thousands of people last year and control much of the capital.
Their arrival coincides with the United Nations announcing mere hours later that it received official notification from the U.S. that it was halting funding to the mission.
The 70 soldiers will provide expertise in air support, which Kenyan officials said will be critical for medical evacuations.
The Salvadoreans are the latest to join the mission in recent months.
Additional police officers from Kenya were deployed last month for a total of more than 600 now in Haiti. They have been joined by police, soldiers and other officials from countries including Jamaica and Guatemala.
The U.S. has been the biggest contributor to the mission which was launched last year and is struggling with a lack of funding and personnel.
The announcement Washington will halt funding will have an “immediate impact” on the mission, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.
The move comes as U.S. President Donald Trump imposes a sweeping freeze on foreign assistance, leading to thousands of U.S. aid agency employees and contractors being laid off and programs worldwide shut down.
Gang violence keeps surging across Port-au-Prince and beyond, with gunmen in recent days killing at least 40 people in an upscale community.
More than 5,600 people were reported killed last year across Haiti and more than 2,200 others were injured. Gang violence has left more than one million people homeless in recent years, according to the U.N.
AP video shot by Pierre Luxama
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