Kenya seeks Dominican help with Haiti anti-gang mission

Kenya asked the Dominican Republic on Monday for more support for a security mission in neighboring Haiti, where the African nation leads an under-resourced international force battling violent criminal gangs.

With backing notably from France, Canada, and the United States, the UN-approved Multinational Security Support Mission (MSS) is meant to help Haiti's overwhelmed and outgunned police tackle gangs that control swaths of the poorest nation in the Americas.

Deployed in June last year, the force has about 1,000 police and soldiers from six countries -- well short of the 2,500 originally envisaged.

"We want your support within the framework of the United Nations so that we can provide more international collaboration to the peace efforts in Haiti," Kenyan Foreign Minister Musalia Mudavadi said after meeting Dominican counterpart Roberto Alvarez in Santo Domingo Monday

"We look forward to your leadership in this particular area."

The comparatively wealthy and stable Dominican Republic shares the Caribbean island of Hispaniola with Haiti, which is riddled with poverty and gang violence.

More than a million Haitians have been displaced by gang violence, says the UN.

At the same time, Dominican President Luis Abinader has stepped up deportations of undocumented migrants from the troubled nation, and has been extending a border wall.

About 500,000 Haitians live in the Dominican Republic, a country of 11.3 million people, according to official data.

As for the security force, the Dominican Republic has been supporting Kenya with intelligence and medical assistance to soldiers wounded in Haiti.

"Our request is that we continue supporting each other and collaborating for the success of that mission," said Mudavadi, who is also scheduled to meet Abinader.

Last month, the UN's special representative to Haiti, Maria Isabel Salvador, warned the country was approaching a "point of no return" and was in desperate need of international aid.