PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI (AP) — Haitians are expressing skepticism over an offer by Kenya to lead an international police force aimed at combatting the gang violence that has wracked the Caribbean nation.

They say the sexual abuse and a devastating cholera outbreak that have accompanied foreign forces in past decades don’t inspire much trust. But Haitians also say uncontrolled bloodshed in their country leaves them with few other options.

Florence Casimir, an elementary school teacher, said that while past international interventions have damaged Haiti, their abuses don’t compare to the brutality of gangs, which kidnap her students and force parents to pay hefty ransoms.

“It will never be better (than past interventions), but the Haitian people don’t have a choice at this point,” Casimir said. “The Haitian people can’t fight it on their own.”

After acting Prime Minister Ariel Henry urged the world in October to deploy an armed force to fight the gangs, the United Nations has struggled to convince a nation to lead efforts to restore the order in the Caribbean country, in part due to past controversy over peacekeeping missions. There’s been little appetite for a US- or UN-led force, and the United States unsuccessfullt tried to persuade Canada to lead a force.

As the search continued, gang warfare continued to worsen, leading to a wave of hundreds of kidnappings and the emergence of vigilante forces taking justice into their own hands. Today, armed groups control an estimated 80 per cent of Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince.

Kenya has offered to send 1,000 police officers to help train and assist an overwhelmed Haitian police force, saying it hopes to “restore normalcy in the country.” This week, the United States said it will put forward a resolution to the UN Security Council to authorise the force,

Barbara Feinstein, deputy assistant secretary for Caribbean affairs and Haiti for the US State Department, said Friday that the US would “robustly support” a Kenyan force, but wouldn’t provide more details. Nations across the Americas and Africa have also said they would be willing to provide support or personnel.

The force “will jumpstart the process of improving security in Haiti by sending thousands of additional personnel to secure critical infrastructure sites and thereby allow the Haitian National Police to increase their focus on battling gangs,” Feinstein said during an online news conference.

Kenya’s proposal has sparked debate among Haitians, many of whom distrust international interventions after the failures and abuses of UN peacekeeping missions over the decades.

Haitians saw rounds of foreign interventions throughout the 1900s, often a response by nations like the US to political instability in Haiti. In some cases, such missions helped ease chaos and in the 1990s led to the creation of the Haitian National Police.

But successes are often overshadowed by scars that Haitians carry with them from abuses that came with those missions.

A UN peacekeeping mission from 2004 to 2017 was plagued with allegations of mass sexual abuse, including claims that peacekeepers raped and impregnated girls as young as 11. Investigations by The Associated Press found evidence of high levels of impunity.

In 2010, sewage runoff from a UN peacekeeper camp into the country’s biggest river started a cholera epidemic that killed nearly 10,000 people.

“They left a bitter taste in the mouths of the Haitian people,” said Valdo Cenè, who sells cooking gas. “Bringing in international forces could mean repeating our history.”

Haitians aren’t the only ones questioning the plan. Watch dog groups are raising alarms about the human rights track record of police in Kenya, saying the force may export their abuse.