Politics

Kenya’s Ruto receptive to turning Haiti mission to U.N. peacekeeping

Published

5 hours ago

September 23, 2024

In his latest visit to Haiti on Saturday, Kenyan President William Ruto revealed that Kenya’s anti-gang mission to the troubled American country may become a United Nations peacekeeping operation.

Ruto visited Haiti to inspect the Multinational Security Support (MSS) deployment, where Kenya is leading the fight against gang violence that has caused political upheaval and enormous displacement.

The United States of America and Ecuador have published a draft resolution requesting that the UN start preparing for a U.N. peacekeeping operation. The Security Council reportedly started drafting a resolution to extend the MSS mandate and order the UN to plan for its formal peacekeeping operation.

Since June, around 400 Kenyan police have been deployed as part of the UN-backed mission.

“On the suggestion to transit this into a fully U.N. Peacekeeping mission, we have absolutely no problem with it, if that is the direction the U.N. security council wants to take,” Ruto said on Saturday in Port-au-Prince.

A draft language that would have asked the U.N. to start planning to convert the MSS mission into a U.N. peacekeeping operation as well as extend the MSS mandate for an additional year was circulated by the United States and Ecuador.

The 15-member council is scheduled to cast a vote on the mandate renewal on September 30.

Kenya dispatched approximately 400 police personnel to Port-au-Prince in June and July out of an anticipated 1,000 after the Security Council authorised the MSS mission. Together, a few more nations have committed at least 1,900 additional troops.

However, in light of the delays in the deployment of personnel and essential equipment required to combat violent gangs, the effectiveness of the MSS mission has come under fire. The state of affairs has gotten worse, according to the UN specialist on human rights in Haiti, who stated on Friday that there are currently roughly 700,000 internally displaced persons.

After months of pleading for help from external forces, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres finally relented and provided 1,000 police when Haiti requested an international force in 2022 to combat gangs.

It is expected that police from the Bahamas, Bangladesh, Barbados, Benin, Chad, and Jamaica will join the Kenyan troop, bringing the total number of police worldwide to 2,500.

Related Topics:Haiti Kenya United Nations

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Politics

Somalia receives additional arms from an Egyptian vessel

Published

46 mins ago

September 23, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

According to port and military officials on Monday, an Egyptian cruiser has sent a second significant cache of weapons, including artillery and anti-aircraft guns, to Somalia. This development is expected to increase tensions between Ethiopia and the two countries.

Due to their mutual suspicion of Ethiopia, Egypt and Somalia have strengthened their ties this year. As a result, Cairo has sent multiple planeloads of weapons to Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia, following the signing of a cooperative security agreement in August.

By entering into a tentative agreement in January to lease land for a port in exchange for the potential recognition of Somaliland’s independence from Somalia, Ethiopia infuriated Mogadishu. Egypt has denounced the Somaliland agreement. Egypt and Ethiopia have conflicted for years over Addis Ababa’s development of a massive hydro project on the Nile River’s headwaters.

According to a diplomat, the Egyptian warship started unloading the weaponry on Sunday. According to two port employees and two military officials who spoke to Reuters, security personnel closed off the quayside and adjacent roads on Sunday and Monday while convoys transported the weapons to a building housing the defence ministry and neighbouring military outposts.

An official working for Somali Prime Minister Hamza Abdi Barre, Nasra Bashir Ali, shared a picture of Defence Minister Abdulkadir Mohamed Nur observing the ship’s unloading on her X account.

Requests for comment from Egyptian officials were met with a delay or a refusal to comment.

Due to the security situation in the area, Egypt’s embassy in Mogadishu issued a warning to its people on Sunday, according to Egyptian media.

While an estimated 5,000–7,000 troops are stationed in other regions by a bilateral arrangement, Ethiopia maintains a minimum of 3,000 soldiers in Somalia as part of an African Union peacekeeping mission (ATMIS) battling Islamist terrorists.

Declaring that the agreement on Somaliland is an attack on its sovereignty, Somalia demands that all Ethiopian forces withdraw by year’s end, barring Addis Ababa from abandoning the arrangement.

The African Union reported in July that Egypt had offered to send troops to a new peacekeeping operation in Somalia, though Cairo has not made a public statement on the subject.

The Ethiopian government has stated in the past that it cannot remain silent while “other actors” take action to destabilise the region, but it did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment.

Politics

Tanzania detains opposition leaders to stop protests

Published

1 hour ago

September 23, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

In a bid to put an end to anti-government rallies in Tanzania’s commercial hub of Dar es Salaam, the police detained two opposition leaders on Monday once more, according to both their party and the police.

Freeman Mbowe, the head of the largest opposition group CHADEMA, was arrested on the street, while Tundu Lissu, his deputy, was abducted from his residence in anticipation of a protest against the purported murders and kidnappings of government critics.

Campaigners for human rights claim that in advance of the December municipal elections and the 2025 national election, President Samia Suluhu Hassan’s administration is smearing rivals.

Mbowe and Lissu were among the 14 persons detained by the police for violating a ban on protests, according to the police.

Hassan’s administration did not immediately respond, but in the past, it has stated that it upholds democracy and does not condone violence.

CHADEMA in a social media post claims that Mbowe was taken into custody when he arrived to conduct a nonviolent protest in the city’s Magomeni neighbourhood. It said that after picking up Lissu, an 11-car convoy departed without disclosing his destination.

Last month, the two and hundreds of supporters were also briefly detained.

In 2016, Lissu escaped an attempted assassination after being shot sixteen times. Another senior CHADEMA member was kidnapped from a bus earlier this month; his body was subsequently discovered with indications that he had been assaulted and had acid poured on his face.