What a gang attack in a rural Haiti town says about the Kenya-led security mission

Ganthier, a rural community 28 miles east of Port-au-Prince

PORT-AU-PRINCE — Ganthier, a rural community 28 miles east of Port-au-Prince and 14 miles from the Dominican Republic border, was among the last holdouts from gang control in Haiti. For two years, the town’s residents resisted one of the country’s most notorious gangs, fighting alongside their local police against bandits who raided and pillaged businesses, kidnapped U.S. missionaries and launched repeated attacks in the area.

On Thursday, as Ganthier found itself on the verge of a full-blown gang take-over, Haitian police, joined by Kenyan officers who are part of the Multinational Security Support mission, launched an offensive. After weeks of planning, meetings and joint patrols to familiarize the foreign forces with Port-au-Prince’s dizzying landscape, the first major attempt to take down a gang and regain control during an active attack was underway.