N’DJAMENA, April 20 (Reuters) – Chad plans to send 1,500 personnel to Haiti, its presidential office said in a letter to lawmakers distributed on Monday, as part of its contribution to a U.N.-backed security force that aims to be 5,500-strong by this summer.
KEY NUMBERS
- Some 400 Chadian personnel are already in Haiti, the letter said, after a group deployed on April 1 alongside a new leader of the force, which was restructured late last year.
- Chad plans to send two battalions of 750 personnel each for a period of 12 months from April, the letter added.
- Around 1,000 troops had previously deployed, mostly police from Kenya but also smaller numbers of personnel from a handful of countries in Central America and the Caribbean.
- Although the volunteer-based force reached just 40% of its initial planned size of 2,500, last October this goal was expanded, opens new tab to 5,500. Some troops have begun withdrawing.
- Officials from Mongolia and Sri Lanka met with Haitian police last week, but did not confirm numbers.
CONTEXT
- The U.N. Security Council first approved backing a multinational security force to help Haitian police fight gangs in October 2023, but this reached just a fraction of its planned size, lacked funds and achieved limited results.
- Since then, the number of Haitians displaced by the conflict has surged to more than 1.4 million from 133,600, and thousands of people have been killed while gangs expanded to rural areas around the capital, which remains largely under the control of a gang alliance known as Viv Ansanm.
- Haitian officials have repeatedly delayed elections due to the insecurity. The country’s last election was a decade ago.
- Some members of the U.N.-backed force have been implicated in sexual abuse cases, according to a U.N. report.