As part of a United Nations-backed effort to combat armed gangs that have taken over the capital, newly deployed Kenyan police officers started patrolling the city on Friday. Haitian Prime Minister, Garry Conille, left Port-au-Prince to travel to Washington and New York.

According to Conille’s office, Justice Minister Carlos Hercule will serve as acting prime minister on Conille’s behalf while he travels alongside Foreign Minister Dominique Dupuy, Finance Minister Ketleen Florestal, and Chief of Staff Nesmy Manigat.

“The delegation will have important work meetings with officials from international financial institutions, among others. It will also inspect Haiti’s embassy in Washington,” the office said, without giving further details.

Conille and Jon Finer, the deputy national security advisor, will meet on Monday, according to a spokesman for the US National Security Council. The UN has approved the deployment of an international security force headed by Kenya to assist Haiti’s police in combating armed gangs that have caused a humanitarian crisis in the nation. The U.S. is the power behind this force financially.

The first Kenyan police deployment arrived this week after Haiti’s former government requested the force in 2022. The arrival date of the remaining force, which is scheduled to total over 2,500 officers, is unknown.

Residents in Port-au-Prince expressed hope that the armed Kenyan police in khaki uniforms, complete with bulletproof jackets and helmets, would put an end to the senseless killings and allow commerce to resume as they patrolled the city in black armoured vans.

“We need peace. If the Kenyan police forces are here, it’s so we can return to the lives we used to have. We hope they’ve come to work seriously,” said resident Kloud Dine.

“We need the Kenyans here a while here because the gang members make us suffer too much,” added Louise Baret, a painter. “Enough is enough.”

Residents in Port-au-Prince expressed hope that the armed Kenyan police in khaki uniforms, complete with bulletproof jackets and helmets, would put an end to the senseless killings and allow commerce to resume as they patrolled the city in black armoured vans.

Gang leader Jimmy “Barbecue” Cherizier rallied armed men in a video posted on social media on Wednesday. He told them to open fire on Kenyan police and threatened to fight to the death, saying, “I don’t care if they are white or black.” He declared, “They’re invaders if they’re not Haitian and they’re on Haitian territory.”

Because of the violence, more than 500,000 people have left their homes, and about half of the population is hungry.

With a promise to increase investment in the West African nation as it gets ready to start producing natural gas, incumbent President Mohamed Ould Ghazouani is highly likely to win the presidential election that was held on Saturday.

The 67-year-old former senior soldier, Ghazouani, has pledged investor-friendly measures to ignite a commodities boom in the 5 million-person nation, many of whom remain impoverished despite the abundance of fossil fuels and minerals.

“The last word belongs to the Mauritanian voters. I commit myself to respecting their choice,” Ghazouani said after voting in the capital.

Voting began at 0700 GMT. The polls close at 1900 GMT, and on Sunday, preliminary results are anticipated.

Ghazouani, who was elected to a first term in 2019, is up against six opponents, one of which is anti-slavery campaigner Biram Dah Abeid, who finished second in the election with more than 18% of the vote.

Hamadi Sidi El Mokhtar of the Islamist Tewassoul party, economist Mohamed Lemine El Mourtaji El Wafi, and attorney Id Mohameden M’Bareck are among the other contenders.

The 39-year-old geographer Mohamed Cheikh Hadrami claimed he had voted for a candidate “who will be able to reconcile Mauritanians” shortly after polls opened in the capital, Nouakchott. He refused to disclose his vote-casting choice.

Two million or so people were registered to vote, and the two main election topics were eliminating corruption and giving young people jobs.

Ghazouani has pledged, should he be re-elected, to build an LNG-fueled power plant from the Greater Tortue Ahmeyin offshore gas project, which is expected to begin producing natural gas by the end of the year. In addition, he promised to increase mining for iron ore, gold, and uranium as well as to invest in renewable energy.

Since 2019, Ghazouani has overseen a period of comparatively stable conditions as Mali and other neighbouring countries in the Sahel region of Mauritania have struggled with Islamist insurgencies that have resulted in military coups.