Haiti and Canada signed an agreement on Mar. 29 for Canada to provide training to Haitian National Police (PNH) officers, Canada’s Ambassador announced in a tweet.
Haiti’s Ministry of Justice and Public Security Emmelie Prophète and Ambassador Sebastien Carrière signed the memorandum of understanding for the training to be coordinated by Cowater International, a management consulting group. Officials did not say when the training will start nor provided further details.
Haiti’s police force has been an institution in ruin for years. The police officers are in need of better equipment and the institution itself needs a major cleansing because many of its members are in gangs, human rights experts have said. The international community has been donating money and vehicles to PNH but the institution is deteriorating instead of improving. However, some view PNH as Haiti’s hope to combat gangs.
To add to the upcoming training, on Mar. 24, Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that Canada will donate $100 million dollars to PNH for equipment. And Canada will welcome 15,000 migrants from the American continent, including Haitians, on a humanitarian basis in 2023. More details about the program will be announced later.
Canada had already announced that it will pour $CAD 10 million, or about $USD 7 million, to the International Organization for Migration (IOM) to Haitian migrants in February.
Canada and the United States have donated money for equipment and provided training multiple times in recent years to prop up law enforcement in crisis-plagued Haiti, but the Haitian police still struggle daily to combat gangs.
For instance, Canada pledged $39 million to increase aid for security and other projects in Haiti in January 2022. And the United States had police training underway in Haiti in July 2022 and gave the Caribbean country $48 million to fight gangs.
To add to the upcoming police training, Canada has also sanctioned 19 politicians and businessmen in Haiti for allegedly having ties to gangs. The latest two people sanctioned were former Senator Nenel Cassy and entrepreneur Steeve Khawly on March 26.
Canada had also deployed an aircraft and maritime vessels to Haiti in February to conduct surveillance and gather information on gangs.
Gangs in Haiti have killed at least 531 people, injured 300 and kidnapped 277 since the year began. At least 160,000 people were displaced due to gang violence, according to a United Nations report.