Kenya Police Corners Haiti Gangs, Liberates Troubled Areas

Kenya Police Corners Haiti Gangs, Liberates Troubled Areas

Kenyan and Haitian police conducted raids on separate criminal gang strongholds in Port-au-Prince, recovering a variety of weapons.

The Multinational Security Support Mission (MSS) said it arrested dozens of suspected criminals during the October 21 raid in PaP, Artibonite, and the Western departments.

MSS Force Commander Godfrey Otunge stated that they will continue the operation to pacify areas controlled by the gangs.

Following the heinous attack at Pont Sonde a few weeks ago, police officers from MSS and HNP were immediately deployed and have been conducting night and day patrols, culminating in the Pont Sonde operation on October 21, 2024.

According to Otunge, the main goal of the security operation was to apprehend Elan Luckson, the leader of the Gran Griff gang, who was responsible for the heinous attack on locals at Pont-Sonde, which killed over 115 people.

DDA/Entèvansyon polisyè: Lapolis sezi yon zam ak plizyè materyèl nan lokalite Pat Chwal nan Komin "Saint-Marc" pic.twitter.com/Ng7BJxRykT
— PNH (@pnh_officiel) October 23, 2024

“Despite the gang’s frantic efforts to dig trenches, ditches and put barricades on the roads to impede access to their hideouts, the joint MSS and HNP resolute teams went for them and smocked them out of their hideouts where Luckson (the notorious gang leader) escaped by a whisker.”

“Dozens of gang members were arrested and are currently being grilled as locals bayed for their blood,” he said.

To gain access to the gangs’ hideouts at the Carrefour Paye intersection on the road leading to Elan Luckson’s home, a dedicated team of MSS and HNP officers had to fill the dug trenches with sand.

The joint security operation concluded at “Pat Chwal,” a location in the municipality of Saint-Marc, where various weapons and materials, including HNP stores, were recovered.

They included a 12 GA Mossberg rifle, a fake pistol, four mobile phones, two bulletproof vests from the Haiti National Police and binoculars.

The team has established a Forward Operating Base (FOB) in the area to improve operations.

“We wish to equally thank the civilians who turned up in large numbers to help fill and load the sandbags that were used to fill up the trenches that the gangs had dug to impede access to their hideouts.”

Kenyan police, along with officials from the Bahamas, Belize, and Jamaica, have deployed troops to Haiti to assist in the fight against criminal gangs that are destabilizing the country.

According to the United Nations, over 700,000 people in Haiti have fled their homes, and more than five million are hungry, accounting for nearly half of the population.

Last month, the United Nations Security Council unanimously approved extending the MSS’s mandate for another year.

A US proposal to convert it into a U.N. peacekeeping mission was dropped from the resolution due to opposition from Russia and China.

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Last week, personnel on the ground conducted an operation in a slum that killed 20 gang members.

🚨MSS Media Alert: The violent grip of gangs in Haiti must be dismantled! We are taking a FIRM stance against these criminals and will confront them head on! Together,we have the strength to reclaim a peaceful Haiti for its people!#MSSforHaiti #World4Haiti #GlobalActionForHaiti pic.twitter.com/SEXoyM4CWy
— Haiti MSS (@HaitiMSS) October 16, 2024