Just days to the official deployment of kenyan police to Haiti, a video has gone viral showing gangs in the Caribbean nation smuggling powerful weapons from the United States.
According to CNN, the video showing the smuggling of powerful weapons by the gangs was real and was through the Central Plateau which had been for years used as a drug smuggling route from the US into Haiti and vice versa.
Also Read: Haiti Gang Leader Berbecue Sends Another Warning Days To Kenya Police Deployment
Confirming the issue, the United Nation said that the weapons are transferred through Haiti’s mountainous and hard-to-reach rural areas before finding their way into the capital Port-au-Prince.
This comes just a week before the deployment of police officers to Haiti, a move that Gang Leaders have said will be a bloodhed. The video has shown that the gangs have powerful weapons that make them confident.
Reports indicate that the guns are dropped in the hard to reach areas by Cessna planes with one gang leader, Vita Lom Innocent, claiming on camera that it was easier to import guns than food and basic supplies.
According to UN, 80% of the Haiti capital is controlled by gangs in possession of these weapons making it even hard to deliver humanitarian aid to civilians in Port-au-Prince.
“At every corner, you do not know what you are going to come across not to mention the constantly shifting gang boundaries,” UN World Food Programme Country Director Jean-Martin Bauer explained.
Also Read: Gov’t Recalls Police Officers On Leave For Haiti Deployment Next Week
The government of kenya has however recalled the kenya police whom were on leave to tend to their families before they are deployed to Haiti later next week. A total of 500 personnel will be leaving on May 23rd.