Belize Defence Force’s Haiti Deployment in Limbo as Kenya Declares Plan Unconstitutional

Troops of the Belize Defence Force (BDF) continue to train for deployment to Haiti as a part of a multinational Kenyan-led task force, but is the mission dead in the water? Today, Kenya’s high court ruled against the plan to send its cops and deemed the venture to be unconstitutional. Last year, the Government of Belize announced that it would be deploying troops to aid in Haiti’s fight against criminal gangs but was awaiting commitments from international partners. However, it seems the mission is now in limbo. Yesterday, Minister of State in the Ministry of Defence Oscar Mira stated that a date for possible deployment was yet to be reached. 

Oscar Mira, Minister of State, Ministry of National Defence: “We are doing training. We have not sent anyone out of the country for training. The training is happening here in Belize. We have Canadian forces here in the country who are giving us that training.  At the beginning we have a list of 50 personnel. We will train more so that we have a pool of BDF officers who can be deployed to Haiti. But that training is happening here in country. It’s not happening somewhere else. There has not been a decision as yet as to deployment to Haiti. CARICOM is still looking and CARICOM is still deciding when would be the best. We want to make sure that our soldiers are well prepared, that the soldiers that are deployed are well trained, they have all the equipment and have everything that they need before a decision is made. A decision has not been made yet, but as the BDF does, they are preparing in the eventuality that the Cabinet decides that we are going to deploy BDF is already prepared and trained.”

Haiti has been in a state of duress since its President was executed and is unable to contain the group of deadly gangs that have seized power in parts of the country.