Kenyan police officer in Haiti to help rein in gangs is killed during operation in countryside

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) - Kenyan authorities on Sunday said that one of their officers sent to Haiti to help rein in the country's gangs died after being injured in an operation in the countryside.

The incident happened in the the western Artibonite region. The police officer was airlifted out of the area, and died from his injuries, Godfrey Otunge, the commander of the Kenyan forces in Haiti, said in a statement.

Godfrey provided few other details, but the Gran Grif gang controls the region. Neither Kenyan nor Haitian authorities immediately responded to a request for comment.

The death was a blow to efforts to try and rein in Haiti’ s gangs, which have violently rampaged through the country since the 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse.

Kenya has sent hundreds of officers to help weak Haitian law enforcement. In February, 200 more police officers from the East African country joined more than 600 other Kenyans already working alongside Haiti's National Police as part of a multinational force boosted by soldiers and police deployed by countries including Jamaica, Guatemala and El Salvador