Three American missionaries, including the daughter and son-in-law of a Republican politician, were reportedly killed by gang members in Haiti as a long-awaited deployment of multinational security forces tasked with saving the Caribbean country from Months of disaster.
Rep. Ben Baker, R-Mo., announced the couple’s murders on Facebook late Thursday, writing: “My heart is broken into a thousand pieces. I have never felt pain like this.
Baker said his daughter Natalie Lloyd and her husband David, both missionaries in Haiti, “were attacked by a gang tonight and both were killed. They went to heaven together.”
Their organization, Missions in Haiti Inc, said the couple and another member of the group, Jude, were “ambushed by three trucks” as they left the church at around 9pm on Thursday. Shot to death.” “We are all devastated,” the group said in a Facebook post.
The killings came just hours after Joe Biden expressed optimism that Haiti’s security crisis – which began to spiral out of control after an organized gang insurgency – could soon was resolved with the arrival of a 2,500-strong multinational police force led by Kenya.
“We’re not talking about an army of thousands of well-trained men [personnel],” Biden said of the Haitian gangs that plunged the country into chaos and forced former Prime Minister Ariel Henry to step down. “This is a manageable crisis.”
The first Kenyan members of the unit were due to arrive in the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince this week to spearhead the operation, their arrival coinciding with Kenyan President William Ruto’s state visit to the United States.
Speaking alongside Biden on Thursday, Ruto also expressed confidence that U.S.-backed policing missions can “break down the gangs and criminal elements that have brought untold misery to Haiti since the organized crime insurgency began in late February.” Armed criminals will be dealt with “firmly and decisively” [and] Within the ambit of the law,” Ruto vowed.
But the first batch of Kenyan military officers did not arrive as planned this week, and the reasons for the delay are puzzling.
A source with knowledge of the mission told Reuters that Kenyan officials had no explanation for the last-minute delay but were ordered to remain on standby. “Port-au-Prince is not equipped to host these officials,” a second source said.
Other sources in Kenya’s interior ministry told the Geneva-based civil society group Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime that Kenya’s advance team found Haiti “ill-prepared for deployment.”
Some observers suspect the delays may be related to security concerns, as they need to give heavily armed gangs advance warning of the mission’s arrival, which could allow criminals to launch a surprise attack on the incoming aircraft.
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Diego Da Rin, a Haiti expert at the International Crisis Group, said that if multinational forces arrive, they will face a difficult task of subduing the roughly 5,000 gang members who control more than 80% of the capital.
“These gangs have never controlled such a large territory in Haiti. They have expanded their armies and weapons arsenals and established strongholds in areas inaccessible to police, sometimes for years,” he said.
Armed groups have stepped up attacks in recent days, fully or partially destroying at least four police stations in a dramatic show of force that appeared to be coordinated with the expected arrival of Kenyan troops.
“It’s a message, and it’s not a hidden message… The message is: ‘Don’t come here because if you come… you will be considered an intruder and an enemy,'” Darling said.
