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Les premiers soldats du nouveau contingent de maintien de la paix népalais, qui compte 350 hommes supplémentaires sont arrivés cette semaine à Port-au-Prince. Leur déploiement devrait être achevé d?ici au début de mars.

Un bataillon d?infanterie légère sera utilisé lors des opérations à Port-au-Prince dans le cadre de l?objectif de la Mission des Nations Unies pour la stabilisation en Haïti (MINUSTAH), afin d?intensifier sa lutte contre les bandes criminelles qui opèrent dans la capitale.

Le commandant de la MINUSTAH, le général Carlos Alberto Dos Santos Cruz, s?est réuni dimanche avec les chefs du contingent, qui sont stationnés dans la capitale. Il leur a donné des ordres concernant le lancement de plusieurs opérations par semaine ayant pour cible les chefs de bande et leurs activités criminelles à Port-au-Prince

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United Nations said it will send 350 more peacekeepers to Haiti

The United Nations said Tuesday it will send 350 more peacekeepers to Haiti in the latest effort to flush out armed gangs from the capital's slums.

The light infantry battalion of Nepalese soldiers began arriving this week and will be fully deployed by early March, the U.N. mission said in a statement.

Maj. Gen. Carlos Alberto Dos Santos Cruz, the Brazilian commander of the 9,000-strong U.N. force, said some of the Nepalese troops will be deployed as early as this week in Cite Soleil, a gang-controlled slum on the edge of the capital of Port-au-Prince.

"I am determined to increase the pressure on the gangs who have been holding the innocent people of Haiti hostage for so long," Santos Cruz said in the statement. "We must not give the gangs time to relax."

Peacekeepers arrived in Haiti in July 2004 to quell violence after a bloody revolt toppled former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Haiti's first democratically elected leader and a champion of the poor.

U.N. troops in recent weeks have stepped up offensives against armed gangs blamed for a wave of killings and kidnappings in the Caribbean nation's capital.

Since their arrival, peacekeepers have made several attempts to secure the slum but have struggled to root out the gangs, which often shoot at passing U.N. patrols and then retreat deep within the sprawling, mazelike shantytown.

Residents of Cite Soleil have accused the force of killing civilians during nighttime raids in the densely populated area of flimsy wooden shacks. The U.N. says its troops only fire when attacked on and try to limit civilian casualties