A member of the international force battling gangs in Haiti has been reported missing, as US Secretary of State Marco Rubio launches a tour of the Caribbean with Haiti’s security crisis high on the agenda.
The Kenyan police officer disappeared after suspected gang members ambushed two mine-resistant ambush protected (MRAP) vehicles on Tuesday in the town of Pont-Sondé, Artibonite region, according to a statement by the Kenya-led Multinational Security Support Mission (MSS).
Forces from the MSS and the Haitian National Police are now carrying out a search and rescue operation to locate the missing officer, Kenya’s National Police Service said.
The ambushed vehicles had been dispatched to recover an armored police vehicle that got stuck in a ditch – which MSS said may have been deliberately dug by gangs. During the recovery operation, one of the MRAP vehicles also got stuck and the other developed mechanical issues. As officers attempted to fix the issue, they were suddenly attacked by gang members, the MSS said in a statement.
“As a result of the incident, one MSS Kenyan contingent officer remains unaccounted for,” MSS said.
If confirmed, it would mark the latest Kenyan casualty since the security mission arrived in June. Last month, a Kenyan member of MSS was fatally wounded in an operation also in the Artibonite region, MSS said.
The US has been a key financial supporter of MSS, and the security crisis in Haiti is a focus of Secretary Rubio’s visit to the Caribbean this week.
On Wednesday, Rubio is scheduled to meet with the president of Haiti’s Presidential Transitional Council Fritz Jean in Jamaica. The Haitian government said the meeting is meant to strengthen regional cooperation related to its challenges.
Over 80% of Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince has been estimated to be under gang control. Since the MSS arrived, gangs have spread increasingly into rural areas, seizing swathes of territory in the agriculturally critical Artibonite region.
In October, the UN said least 70 people, including women and children, were massacred by the Gran Grif gang in the same Artibonite town where the officer disappeared on Tuesday.