Kenya Hits Pause on Police Deployment to Haiti

A deployment of 1,000 Kenyan police officers to Haiti to help quell gang-fueled lawlessness is on hold until a new government is formed in the Caribbean nation, officials in Kenya said Tuesday, as leaders tried to figure out a difficult question: Who is going to run Haiti?

Kenya had agreed to send a security force to Haiti, but that deal had been reached with Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who on Monday night agreed to step down once a new transitional government is formed.

Haiti’s embattled prime minister announced his intention to resign after being stranded for days in Puerto Rico following a gang takeover of much of the Haitian capital that made it impossible for him to return.

His decision followed several days of violent attacks on police stations, hospitals, prisons, the main airport, seaport and other state institutions and brought more uncertainty to an already chaotic situation in the Caribbean country, which has been convulsed in recent months by an extraordinary wave of gang violence.

Political actors in Haiti met behind closed doors to negotiate membership of the transitional government, which is expected to be created in the coming days.

But the process was met with criticism both abroad and in Haiti, where many people denounced a lack of transparency that smacked of international meddling and backroom deal-making.

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