A unit of 150 Guatemalan soldiers has arrived in Haiti with a mission to restore order amid the chaos caused by armed gangs.
The first group of 75 soldiers arrived on Friday, and another 75 arrived on Saturday, all drafted from the gendarmerie, according to the Guatemalan government.
A state of emergency has been declared The government has been fighting across the Caribbean for months against violent gangs who control much of the capital, Port-au-Prince.
Troops are stationed in Haiti to bolster a Kenya-led, UN-backed security mission that has so far failed to stop the escalation of violence.
Kenya dispatched about 400 police officers in June and July last year to help crack down on gangs.
This was the first branch of a UN-recognized international military force that would consist of 2,500 officers from various countries.
Smaller troops from Jamaica, Belize and El Salvador are also stationed in Haiti as part of the mission, and the United States is the operation’s largest funder.
March 2024, Armed gangs storm two of Haiti’s largest prisons.Approximately 3,700 prisoners were released.
The western region, including Port-au-Prince, initially declared a state of emergency on March 3. Escalating violence grips the capital.
Chronic instability, dictatorships and natural disasters in recent decades have made Haiti one of the poorest countries in the Americas.
In 2021 President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated. by unidentified gunmen in Port-au-Prince.
Since then, the country has suffered from economic turmoil, weakening political control, and increasingly violent gang warfare.
