A contingent of 150 Guatemalan soldiers has arrived in Haiti, tasked with helping to restore order amid the chaos unleashed by armed groups.
According to the Guatemalan government, the first group of 75 soldiers arrived on Friday and the second 75 on Saturday, all drawn from the military police.
A state of emergency has been imposed. For months, the government has been battling violent gangs across the Caribbean nation that have seized much of the capital, Port-au-Prince.
The forces are in Haiti to bolster a Kenyan-led UN-backed security mission that has so far failed to stop the violence from escalating.
Kenya sent about 400 police officers in June and July last year to help tackle the gangs.
It was the first installment of a UN-sanctioned international force that would consist of 2,500 officers from various countries.
A small number of forces from Jamaica, Belize and El Salvador are also in Haiti as part of the mission, and the United States is the largest funder of the operation.
In March 2024, Armed gangs storm two of Haiti’s largest prisons.Released about 3,700 prisoners.
The Ouest department – a region including Port-au-Prince – was originally placed under a state of emergency on March 3, after Escalating violence gripped the capital..
In recent decades, chronic instability, dictatorship and natural disasters have made Haiti the poorest nation in the Americas.
In 2021, President Jovenel Moise was assassinated. by unknown gunmen in Port-au-Prince.
Since then the country has been mired in economic chaos, little-functioning political control and increasingly violent gang wars.