Overview:
A Kenyan police officer from the Multinational Safety Help (MSS) mission was shot throughout an anti-gang operation in Savien, a group within the decrease Artibonite Division, and died from his wounds on Sunday, Feb. 23, 2025.
PORT-AU-PRINCE — The Multinational Safety Help Mission (MSS), helping the Haitian Nationwide Police (PNH) in efforts to fight gang violence, introduced on Sunday that 26-year-old Kenyan police officer Samuel Ketwaie had died from gunshot wounds sustained throughout an anti-gang operation in Savien, close to Pont-Sondé within the decrease Artibonite Division. This space had seen greater than 70 individuals killed by gangs final October.
For a number of months, safety forces have been conducting operations geared toward displacing varied gangs within the area, notably the Gran Grif and Kokorat San Ras armed teams, which have been terrorizing a number of native communities.
“The officer was instantly evacuated by air to the Stage 2 hospital at LSA 1, however sadly succumbed to his accidents,” mentioned the commander of the multinational power, Godfrey Otunge, in a statement.
Life Help Space (LSA 1) refers to a camp the place the mission’s medical infrastructure is ready up. The Stage 2 hospital at LSA is a navy facility that gives extra superior care than a fundamental first-aid station, stabilizing the injured earlier than evacuating them to a extra outfitted hospital. Jack Ombaka, who first reported the officer’s harm, didn’t specify LSA’s location inside the Port-au-Prince metropolitan space.
In line with Ombaka, Kenyan officers and Haitian police responded to misery calls from residents of the Séguin locality who had been looking for police intervention after some profitable safety operations that neutralized many gangs in a number of areas of the Artibonite Division. Following this incident, the MSS reaffirmed its dedication to pursue the gangs aggressively.
“That is the value our courageous officer paid—he was killed combating for the Haitian individuals,” mentioned Ombaka in an announcement on WhatsApp. “His comrades, refusing to just accept this loss, instantly pursued and neutralized the gang member accountable.”
“That is the value our courageous officer paid—he was killed combating for the Haitian individuals. His comrades, refusing to just accept this loss, instantly pursued and neutralized the gang member accountable.”
Jack Ombaka, MSS Spokesperson.
“We’ll pursue these gangs to the final man standing. We won’t allow you to down,” Ombaka added, noting that the officer “fell as a hero.”
The MSS officers haven’t disclosed any images or movies of the slain officer, nor have they proven the second when assist troops from El Salvador evacuated the injured cops.
The safety mission’s most complicated check begins
The demise of the Kenyan officer comes because the MSS and PNH authorities proceed to evaluate their methods to revive safety and stability within the nation. Just lately, the safety state of affairs in Haiti has worsened, with gang assaults rising in a number of areas of the capital and the Artibonite. Clashes are rising because the police power and the multinational mission wrestle to attain the outcomes anticipated by a populace that has change into more and more essential and skeptical.
Not less than six cops, together with 4 killed in shootouts with gangs invading communes like Kenscoff, Montrouis, and Port-au-Prince neighborhoods akin to Fort Nationwide, Nazon, Delmas 17 and 30 and Savien within the Artibonite, have been killed or injured. Troopers from the Haitian Armed Forces (FADH) and brokers of the Protected Air Brigade (BSAP) additionally suffered casualties earlier than the incident was recorded within the camp on Sunday, Feb. 23, 2025.
Ketwaje’s demise marks the second recorded taking pictures of an MSS officer since its deployment in June 2024 to assist the PNH in efforts towards the gangs controlling almost 90% of the Haitian capital and its surrounding areas and enormous chunks of the Artibonite Division. The primary incident concerned a Kenyan police officer who was shot within the shoulder throughout an operation in Port-au-Prince in July 2024. He was urgently evacuated for remedy earlier than returning to the mission a number of months later.
The incident occurred when a workforce of MSS officers was patrolling the street resulting in the Nationwide Port Authority within the capital and seen a gang robbing a rice truck after killing the motive force. In response, the MSS officers returned fireplace because the assailants started taking pictures at them. Through the trade of gunfire, a Kenyan police officer suffered an harm to the left acromioclavicular joint that concerned comfortable tissue injury.
This loss inside the multinational mission, which is grappling with a scarcity of safety personnel and inadequate funding and gear, comes at a time when the power is encountering appreciable criticism from Haitians. Certainly, many Haitians stay skeptical of the power’s influence, regardless of often receiving armored automobiles from the US, the most important monetary contributor to the MSS.