FILE PHOTO: Kenyan police officers stand together during a joint operation with Haitian Police, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti July 29, 2024. REUTERS/Jean Feguens Regala/File Photo
PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) -The U.S. military said on Friday that it would deliver 24 additional armored vehicles to Kenyan personnel deployed in Haiti who are heading a long-delayed security operation in the conflict-ravaged Caribbean nation.
Some 400 Kenyan police, leading a U.N.-ratified security mission mandated to fight heavily armed gangs that have taken over most of the capital, recently deployed to Haiti.
The mission was first requested by Haiti's previous government in 2022, and of the handful of countries that have together pledged over 2,500 troops, the Kenyan contingent remains the only group to have arrived.
The U.S. Southern Command, the Department of Defense's joint military command covering Latin America and the Caribbean known as SouthCom, said it would deliver the mine resistant ambush protected (MRAP) MaxxPros to the capital's main airport via U.S. Air Force C-17 cargo aircraft.
It said the deliveries would start from Friday, adding to an existing fleet of 10 U.S.-provided MRAPs.
The aircraft will also deliver 34 Overhead Gunner Protection Kits, or "turrets," which military-funded contractors will install onto the armored vehicles to boost their field view during joint operations with national police, it added.
Kenyan troops were forced to withdraw from the Haitian town of Ganthier late July, marking a major setback in one of the mission's first significant outings from the capital.
Citing a spokesperson for the Kenyan forces, the Miami Herald reported that the problem with the first MRAPs supplied by the Americans was that they did not have towers, preventing personnel from fighting or responding to attacks from inside.
Violence in Ganthier had by Aug. 1 displaced nearly 6,000 residents, U.N. data showed.
Close to 600,000 people have been internally displaced by the conflict and hundreds of thousands of would-be migrants deported back to Haiti, where nearly 5 million people are suffering from severe hunger.
The mission's initial 12-month mandate is set to end in October.
(Reporting by Harold Isaac; Writing by Sarah Morland: Editing by Kylie Madry)
