Jamaican troops to be deployed to Haiti this week

The Jamaican Government is expected to announce today the deployment of a team of police and soldiers to Haiti this week.

The team is to assist with planning and coordination for a larger contingent.

Jamaica is supporting a multinational force to help restore law and order in Haiti.

The Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) has called a special post-Cabinet press conference for today, starting at 9 a.m.

Cabinet meetings are usually held on Mondays and a press update done on Wednesdays.

A statement from OPM Monday did not say what the press conference will be about, but it said there would be "important updates".

Last August, Prime Minister Andrew Holness said Jamaica was prepared to send 200 security personnel to Haiti as part of a multinational force aimed at providing support to the security and humanitarian crisis in the country.

Following an emergency CARICOM summit in March, Jamaica reiterated its support for the international police force, which is led by Kenya and backed by the United Nations and the United States.

A transitional council is now leading Haiti, which has been wracked by gang violence.

After Ariel Henry's resignation, the council appointed Garry Conille as the new prime minister to stabilise Haiti for national elections in February 2026.

In March, gangs mounted coordinated attacks targeting key state infrastructure, including multiple police stations and two of the main prisons in the capital Port-au-Prince as well as educational and health facilities and religious sites, the United Nations reported.

Gangs were said to control over 80 per cent of the capital.

“These attacks have further weakened state institutions and deepened the already critical challenges to the re-establishment of rule of law," said Maria Isabel Salvador, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Haiti, at a UN Security Council meeting in April.

In the first three months of the year, the UN said 2,500 people, including at least 82 children, were killed or injured as a result of gang violence in Haiti.

The UN also said that some 362,000 people – half of them children – have been forced to flee their homes.

- Jovan Johnson

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