Kenyan officer is missing in Haiti following gang attack

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a U.N.-backed multinational security mission said on Wednesday.

The Kenyan officers were on their way Tuesday to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” according to the mission’s statement, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer.

Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media.

Gang violence has left more than one million people homeless in the Caribbean country in recent years, according to the U.N., with many crowding into makeshift and unsanitary shelters after gunmen razed their homes.

The Kenya-led force was launched last year and tasked with fighting gangs trying to seize full control of Haiti’s capital. Kenya had promised to send 1,000 officers to Haiti. Since June, 800 have been deployed.

Another Kenyan officer who was shot and killed by the gangs in Haiti in February was buried in Kenya last week. Opposition leaders in the east African country called for the mission’s officers to be better equipped.

The mission has been struggling with a lack of personnel as gangs that control 85% of the capital, Port-au-Prince, keep seizing more territory. The force’s funding has also been dealt a blow after the U.S., its biggest backer, froze some of its funding, part of President Donald Trump’s sweeping freeze on foreign assistance.