The Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC) based in Switzerland has called on Kenyan Police officers to hasten the process of curbing gang violence in Haiti.
The agency expressed concerns over delays by the Multinational Security Support Mission to defeat the dreaded gangs who continued to wreak havoc in the country.
According to GI-TOC, the peacekeepers needed to rapidly deliver tangible security results for them to be considered as the solution and not part of the problem.
GI-TOC in its report disclosed how the gangs continued to dominate the country despite the presence of the peacekeepers who had been in the country for almost a month.
The gangs did this by distributing food or petty cash to the community members and even providing work and social recognition to children which they enrolled as foot soldiers.
Residents who spoke to the organization expressed fears that the gangs could use them as human shields against the Haitian police and foreign peacekeepers.
The Anti-crime agency noted that while the MSS brought operational oxygen to Haiti's under-resourced police, there was still much uncertainty surrounding the mission in terms of its strategy and rules of engagement.
According to the Agency, while the officers had regained control of major infrastructure such as the airport, the civilians in gang-controlled areas wholly depended on regulations imposed by criminal groups.
The report comes hardly a fortnight after the peacekeepers began receiving equipment from the United States government to help them defeat the gangs.
According to sources privy to the information, among the weapons supplied included the military Armored Personnel Carrier (APC) designed to transport personnel and equipment during combat.
The officers also received a wide array of resources to facilitate their mission including; a fully equipped restaurant, washing machines and a flurry of other essentials.
WIFI connection would also be installed within the base for ease of communication between them and their families back in Kenya
