Kenya sent more than 200 police officers to Haiti on Saturday, providing backup to an understaffed security mission in the Caribbean country where rampant gang violence has displaced more than a million people.

Kenya's interior minister said the east African nation has deployed another 217 police officers to Haiti as part of a multinational force to curb gang violence. Kipchumba Murkomen said in a statement Saturday that the police officers left Kenya on Friday.

Kenyan President William Ruto said the plan is eventually to send 2,500 police officers to Haiti under the UN-backed mission.

Criminal gangs still control some 85 percent of the capital Port-au-Prince, the United Nations estimates, despite the deployment last June of the Kenyan-led Multinational Security Support Mission (MSS

There are still significant challenges with the funding that were already there with the Biden administration.”

Kenya said Saturday it was sending another 217 police officers to Haiti to bolster a multinational force seeking to restore order to the violence-ridden Caribbean island. "The 217 officers will reinforce the first batch of 400 officers who were deployed last year to the Caribbean nation to restore peace,