(7 Feb 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Port-au-Prince, Haiti – 6 February 2025
1. Various of Kenyan policemen marching down on tarmac at airport
2. Various of Haiti’s interim Prime Minister, Alix Didier Fils-Aimé (purple shirt), President of the Transitional Council Leslie Voltaire (white shirt) and US Ambassador Dennis B. Hankins (beige blazer) at airport
3. Various of Kenyan police officers
4. Godfrey Otunge, Commander of the Kenya-led Multinational Support Mission, at podium
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Godfrey Otunge, Commander of the Kenya-led Multinational Support Mission:
“When I talk about the ambassadors, I mean for the doubting Thomas’ that were saying that the mission has been stopped, no the mission is in full course.”
6. Kenyan policemen praying
7. Kenyan policemen
8. Otunge talking to Didier Fils-Aimé, Voltaire and Hankins
9. Kenyan policemen walking away
10. Various of helicopters being removed from planes and moved on tarmac
STORYLINE:
A fourth contingent of Kenyan police arrived on Thursday in Haiti to help repel violent gangs as officials brushed off concerns of a halt in some U.S. funding to the U.N.-backed mission.
The 200 police officers from the East African country join more than 600 other Kenyans already working alongside Haiti’s National Police as part of a multinational force boosted by soldiers and police deployed by countries including Jamaica, Guatemala and El Salvador.
The latest deployment of Kenyan police comes two days after the U.S. notified the United Nations that it was freezing $13.3 million slated for the mission as part of a sweeping freeze on foreign assistance imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump.
“For the doubting Thomas’ that were saying that the mission has been stopped, no the mission is in full course,” Godfrey Otunge, the mission’s force commander, said as he greeted the new officers at Haiti’s main international airport, which remains closed to commercial flights because of ongoing gang violence.
Otunge said in a statement Wednesday that the amount frozen represents less than 3% of ongoing assistance to the mission.
He noted that the U.S. and other partner countries are still providing logistical, financial and equipment support, with support flights arriving almost daily.
The U.S. State Department said it approved waivers for $40.7 million in foreign assistance to help the mission and Haitian police, including contracts to support forward operating bases, medical services and vehicle maintenance.
It noted that as recently as Tuesday, the U.S. delivered “much-needed heavy armored equipment” to the mission and Haitian police.
During a visit to the Dominican Republic on Thursday, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Washington was committed to supporting the U.N.-backed mission led by Kenyan police and called for it to be broadened so it could effectively deal with gangs.
He said the issue of Haiti cannot be ignored.
Earlier, Rubio spoke with Kenyan President William Ruto to thank him for his country’s leadership of the mission in Haiti, which remains fully operational, and Kenya’s role in promoting peace in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The mission, which began last year, is struggling with a lack of funding and personnel as gangs that control 85% of the capital, Port-au-Prince, keep seizing more territory.
AP video shot by Pierre Luxama
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