As "urban guerrilla warfare" between gangs continues to expand across the national territory, Frantz Elbé, Acting Director General of the Haitian National Police (PNH) declared that he hoped that the multinational force approved by the UN will be able to help its services fight more effectively against the "terrorism" of armed gangs.

Elbé recalled that the PNH "was not created to deal with urban guerrilla warfare” explaining "[...] several gangs have a war arsenal, links with the mafia and transnational criminal networks and have significant financial resources [...] About fifteen years ago, the bandits were equipped with a pistol or a revolver but today, they are armed with modern assault rifles", of the gangs which control around 80 % of Port-au-Prince…

Nevertheless he recognizes some successes "[...] it is true that the police were able to carry out operations which resulted in the arrest of several gang members [...] others were fatally injured during exchanges of fire with the police who also seized a significant quantity of weapons and ammunition."

However, he admits that Haiti still lives in "generalized terror" emphasizing that the number of police specialized in the fight against this type of criminals is insufficient "[...] for this reason, the arrival of a multinational force, robust , specialized and dissuasive could accompany the PNH in large-scale operations aimed at dismantling these armed gangs."

Elbé hopes that this mission, "[...] which will surely be equipped with materials and equipment specifically linked to this type of operations," will be able to help the Haitian police to "conduct their operations more effectively".

Above all, he hopes that this intervention force will be able to carry out joint training and simulation sessions with the specialized units of the PNH and thus support them in the process of dismantling gangs and consolidating areas conquered by the police.

Furthermore, he believes that the mandate of the international force will allow it to carry out a "transfer of technology” and equipment to the PNH at the end of this mission…"

SL/ HaitiLibre