Kenya police officer goes missing during rescue after ambush by Haiti gangs
Another officer was killed on February 23 in Haiti, marking the first casualty for the Kenyan-led security mission
A Kenya police officer serving with the Multinational Security Support (MSS) Mission in Haiti has gone missing during an operation.
According to Reuters news agency, the special forces were attacked by gang members when they were helping a vehicle from the Haitian national police that was stuck in a ditch, suspected to have been dug by gangs yesterday.
A statement by National Police Service spokesman Muchiri Nyaga said the officer was reported missing following the ambush along the Carrefour Paye-Savien main supply line in the Pont-Sande area, Artbonite Department.
“The Multinational Security Support Mission (MSS), in collaboration with the Haiti National Police (HNP), is actively conducting a search and rescue operation to locate the missing officer,” added Nyaga.
He commended Kenyan police officers deployed to MSS for remaining committed to fulfilling its mandate.
Haitian media reported the officer was killed, and videos shared on social media showed the body of a soldier lying on the floor in a bloody uniform.
Another officer was killed on February 23 in Haiti, marking the first casualty for the Kenyan-led security mission since its deployment to the country in June 2024.
Samuel Tompoi, who has since been buried in Kajiado County, succumbed to injuries he sustained during an operation in the Artibonite department, north of the capital, Port-au-Prince.
The MSS is tasked with supporting Haiti’s efforts to combat escalating gang violence that has displaced over a million people. But though the situation in Haiti has grown increasingly dire, with violent clashes between gangs and security forces becoming more frequent, financial support from the international community has been slow in coming.
Kenya has so far dispatched 744 police officers out of the 1,000 President William Ruto pledged to deploy to the mission.
Other countries including Jamaica, Guatemala and El Salvador have also deployed police officers and soldiers to tackle gang violence in the Caribbean nation.
Last year, at least 5,601 people were killed in gang-related violence, a thousand more than in 2023, according to the United Nations. The UN also recorded 315 lynchings of people allegedly affiliated with gangs as well as 281 cases of alleged summary executions by police.
A call by the UN Secretary General António Guterres to transform the MSS into a peacekeeping force in order to ease its funding is yet to be approved by the Security Council.
He has, however, since recommended creating a UN support mission to back the MSS that will be funded through the UN peacekeeping budget in order to allow it to use force to reduce gang territorial control.
