Jamaican and Haitian leaders meet to discuss situation in war-torn country

NEW YORK, CMC – Haiti's Prime Minister Garry Conille held talks today with Jamaica's Prime Minister Andrew Holness on the security situation in the French-speaking Caribbean Community (CARICOM) country.

Both leaders are attending the 79th United Nations General Assembly that officially gets underway at the United Nations on Tuesday.

“I was pleased to discuss with Prime Minister Andrew Holness of Jamaica the continued deployment in the coming weeks of Jamaican troops to be part of the Mission in Haiti and the equipment promised, particularly to help protect the bay of Port-au-Prince,”  Conille said, adding “we discussed regional experiences in the joint fight against armed gangs”.

Prime Minister Holness said, “our discussions focused on returning stability to Haiti, the support provided so far, including from Jamaica, as well as the expansion of support that is required to return the country to normalcy”.

Jamaica is among a handful of CARICOM countries expected to provide support to the Kenya led United Nations sanctioned Multinational Security Support Mission (MSS) aimed at returning peace and security to Haiti following the July 7, 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moise.

Last weekend, Kenyan President William Ruto, who visited Haiti, said he wanted to transform the MSS into a full-scale United Nations peacekeeping operation.

Kenya has sent 400 security officers to the Caribbean country and Ruto said, “our next batch, another 600, is undergoing redeployment training. We will be ready for the mission in a few weeks and look forward to the necessary support to enable their deployment.”

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