Kenyan police contingent arrives in Haiti as protests roil Nairobi | Conflict News [Video]

A group of Kenyan police officers have arrived in Haiti, marking the beginning of a United Nations-backed mission to combat powerful armed gangs that have wreaked turmoil in the Caribbean country.

Waving Kenyan flags and sporting camouflage uniforms and rifles, several hundred Kenyan police officers stepped onto the tarmac at the Toussaint Louverture international airport on Tuesday near the capital of Port-au-Prince. More than 80 percent of the city has fallen under the control of gangs.

“I commend — and am deeply grateful to — all the countries that have pledged personnel and financial support to this mission,” United States President Joe Biden said in a statement on Tuesday, noting that the US also provided $360m in support.

While the UN has urged the international community to send a security force to Haiti, a long and controversial history of foreign interventions has caused critics to question the initiative.