PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Haitian police officers on Monday demanded better protection and treatment a day after gunmen killed a Kenyan policeman who was part of a U.N.-backed mission tasked with fighting gangs in the troubled Caribbean country.
Garry Jean Baptiste, leader of one of two powerful police unions in Haiti, called on government officials to provide more equipment and backup as gangs that control 85% of the capital, Port-au-Prince, keep attacking neighborhoods to seize more territory.
“Take this insecurity seriously so more lives can be saved,” he said into a microphone as large speakers mounted on a truck amplified his message outside the offices of Haiti’s prime minister and its transitional presidential council.
About two dozen civilian protesters cheered the union leader on, with some holding signs that said, “We deserve security.”
The demands come a day after leaders of the Kenyan-led mission announced that a policeman from the East African country was shot in Haiti’s central Artibonite region located just north of the capital. Several gangs control that area, including Gran Grif, accused of slaying dozens of people in a small community last year.
Jean Baptiste also denounced that police officers are not getting paid on time and requested that the government financially help the families of slain law enforcement.
More than 5,600 people were reported killed in Haiti last year, with gang violence leaving more than one million homeless in recent years, according to the U.N.
