Kenya police boss denies reports officers in Haiti peacekeeping mission haven't been paid in months

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Kenya's top police official has denied reports that officers serving in the United Nations-backed multinational peacekeeping mission in Haiti have gone unpaid for three months.

The police inspector general, Douglas Kanja, on Thursday said officers in Haiti had been paid “up to the end of October.” He was reacting to Kenyan media reports citing deployed officers who complained that their salaries had not been paid for three months.

Kenya is leading a contingent of foreign police in the troubled Caribbean country to help quell gang violence. The Kenyan officers deployed in June marked the fourth major foreign military or police intervention in Haiti.

While some Haitians welcome them, others view the force with caution, given that the previous intervention — the U.N.’s 2004-2017 peacekeeping mission — was marred by allegations of sexual assault and the introduction of cholera, which killed nearly 10,000 people.

Financial reports from Kenya’s Treasury revealed that Kenya spent over 2 billion Kenyan shillings ($15 million) for the mission while waiting to be reimbursed by the U.N.

“This money we are spending on behalf of the U.N., we are the ones making the payment so the money comes from our exchequer because these are our officers,” Treasury Minister John Mbadi told domestic media last week.

More than 4,500 people have been reported killed in Haiti so far this year, and another 2,060 injured, according to the U.N.

Gang violence also has displaced an estimated 700,000 people in recent years as gunmen burn and pillage communities in a push to control more territory.

A growing number of people have criticized the Kenyan-led mission, noting that police have not seized control of gang strongholds or arrested any gang leaders.

Gang violence worsened last month as the United States and other countries pushed for a U.N. peacekeeping mission, noting that the current Kenyan-led mission lacks resources and funding.

A Kenyan police officer, part of a UN-backed multinational force, runs to take cover from an exchange of gunfire between gangs and police at the Kenyan base in the Delmas neighborhood of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Thursday, Dec. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph)

VIENNA (AP) — Austrian People’s Party on Sunday nominated its General Secretary Christian Stocker as interim leader after the expected resignation of Chancellor Karl Nehammer, Austrian news agency APA reported.

Nehammer announced Saturday he would resign in the next few days after coalition talks with the Social Democrats collapsed.

Stocker, a lawyer and member of the Austrian Parliament, has served as general secretary of the People’s Party since 2022. He is seen as an experienced and calm crisis communicator who has frequently appeared in Austrian media to defend controversial decisions.

It is not clear yet who will become acting chancellor until a new government is formed.

Protected by special police forces, Nehammer walked across the square from the Chancellery toward the president’s office in Vienna.

“What is important for me is that the way of stability and the center can be continued,” he said.

Austria’s President Alexander Van der Bellen will make a public statement to announce the next steps once the meeting with Nehammer is over.

The 52-year-old Nehammer became chancellor and conservative party leader in 2021, after his predecessor Sebastian Kurz was forced to stand down following allegations of corruption.

In April 2022, Nehammer became the first European leader to visit Moscow and meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin since the invasion of Ukraine in February that year. Before going to Moscow, he also met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv.

Austria was thrown into political turmoil on Friday after the liberal party NEOS pulled out of coalition talks with the center-left Social Democrats and the conservative People’s Party. On Saturday the two remaining parties, who have a razor-thin majority in Parliament, made another attempt to negotiate and form a government – but this effort also ended in failure after a few hours, with negotiators saying they were unable to agree on how to repair the budget deficit.

FILE - Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer attends a press conference in Vienna on Thursday, Aug. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Heinz-Peter Bader, File)