New contingent of Kenyan police joins UN-backed mission to fight gangs in Haiti

A fourth contingent of Kenyan police arrived Thursday in Haiti to help repel violent gangs as officials brushed off concerns over 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.

“We are reaching close to our full strength so the mission can start giving results,” 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.

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.

Otunge said in a statement Wednesday that the amount frozen represents less than 3% of ongoing assistance to the mission.