PORT AU PRINCE, Haiti (CMC) — The United States has delivered various military equipment and materials to Haiti as the United Nations-sanctioned Kenyan-led Multi-national Support Mission (MSM) to the French-speaking Caribbean country has warned the criminal gangs that “we have a job that we are committed to do”.

Kenya has offered to send about 1,000 troops to stabilise Haiti alongside personnel from several other countries, including The Bahamas, Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Belize, and Jamaica. The first batch of 400 Kenyan troops arrived here last month.

The United States has said it would not be sending troops to Haiti, but would be providing providing more than US$300 million in financial assistance and up to US$60 million in equipment.

Over the last weekend, a US Air Force cargo plane arrived at the Toussaint Louverture International Airport with equipment including several MaxxPro armoured vehicles.

In addition to receiving military equipment, the officers also received various resources to facilitate their mission, including washing machines and a host of other essential items.

Kenya Mission Commander Godfrey Otunge, speaking on the images published on the Internet, showing Kenyan police officers in front of the American Embassy in Port-au-Prince, said that the armed Kenyan police officers were part of an escort that ensured his security, as well as those of other Kenyan leaders.

“Our officers were not there to guard the embassy but as part of a meeting taking place inside. We went to discuss many issues regarding more equipment for the troops.”

He also said in his first public comment since his arrival here that the MSS has a job “we are committed to do” and that “we intend to achieve this by working closely with Haitian authorities and local and international partners dedicated to a new Haiti”.

In the nationally broadcast news conference in which he took no questions from he media on Monday, Otunge said the mission aims to “create security conditions conducive to holding free and fair elections”.

Head of the Haitian National Police Normil Rameau, who also addressed the country on Monday, said the UN-backed mission is focused on reclaiming all areas from gang control, reinstating police presence in regions lacking authority and assisting Haitians displaced by the gangs to return home.

Leader of the coalition gang “G9 an Fanmi e Alye” Jimmy Cherisier, alias Barbecue, said his group is prepared to have dialogue with the authorities.

Cherisier, a former police officer and spokesman for the criminal group “Living Together, which is an alliance of two of the most powerful gang coalitions in the country “Gpèp” and “G9”, appeared in a video last weekend, saying “we have decided to publicly announce that our strategy of laying down arms to facilitate national dialogue and promote peace is already written in black and white on our agenda.

“We are prepared to appoint a credible and coherent Haitian citizen in the diaspora to facilitate dialogue in order to put an end to this mafia war and facilitate the path towards peace in the country, denouncing…the political mafia and economy that is holding the country hostage,” said an impeccably dressed Cherisier.

The United Nations has said that more than 2,500 people were killed or injured in the first three months of the year in Haiti and that the spike in violence has displaced more than half a million people.

A Kenyan policeman stands guard outside the US Embassy in Port-au-Prince during a meeting with officials on July 5, 2024. Kenyan police arrived in violence-ravaged Haiti on June 25, 2024, on a long-awaited mission to help wrest the Caribbean nation from powerful gangs.Photos: AFP

Medics carry the body of a person killed overnight by gang members in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on July 7, 2024. Despite what he called an “extremely complicated” situation in the gang-plagued Caribbean nation, the leader of Haiti’s transitional government Prime Minister Garry Conille pledged on July 2 to offer “transparency” to his countrymen as he takes on the challenge of restoring order.

Director general of the Haitian Police Normil Rameau speaks during a press conference at the General Directorate of the Haitian Police on July 8, 2024.

Haiti’s Prime Minister Garry Conille speaks to the press on his return to Port-au-Prince, July 6, 2024, after travelling to the US and meeting with the UN Security Council.

A man carries debris in a wheelbarrow from a street in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on July 5, 2024. The Government has begun to clean up the city centre where armed gangs have sowed terror near the National Palace.