Haiti situation stabilizing, Taiwan may donate supplies: Diplomat

Taipei, July 23 (CNA) Years-long political and social turmoil in Haiti is stabilizing after the arrival of Kenyan police forces last month and Taiwan could donate more supplies to help the embattled country, a senior Taiwanese diplomat said in Taipei on Tuesday.

Cheng Li-cheng (鄭力城), head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' (MOFA) Latin American and Caribbean Affairs Department, said Taiwan previously donated 100 sets of bulletproof vests to Haitian national police in 2023 to help them combat rampant gang violence in the Caribbean ally.

The Haiti government has asked Taiwan to provide more help in this area and the two governments were still discussing exactly what Haiti needed, Cheng said when asked about Haiti's situation at a MOFA briefing and if it needed more help from Taiwan.

According to Cheng, the situation in Haiti is stabilizing after the arrival of Kenyan police since late June to man a United Nations-backed security mission.

Cheng said the ministry was still assessing, however, if it was time to send back two Taiwanese technical mission members evacuated from Haiti in March.

In the meantime, Taiwan's ambassador to Haiti, Ku Wen-jiann (古文劍), has established friendly interactions with key Haitian officials, and bilateral diplomatic relations remained strong, Cheng said.

Among those officials are interim Prime Minister Garry Conille, Foreign Minister Dominique Dupuy, and head of the nation's Transitional Presidential Council Edgard Leblanc Fils, of the transitional government established in June.

Haiti has been rocked by gang violence and social unrest since former Haitian President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated at his private home in July 2021.

But conditions worsened dramatically at the end of February when armed groups launched coordinated attacks in Port-au-Prince, saying they wanted to overthrow then-Prime Minister Ariel Henry.