Port-au-Prince, HAITI (AFP) — More than 80 soldiers from Guatemala and El Salvador arrived in Haiti on Friday as part of the Kenyan-led multinational mission to bolster the national police force in the face of spiralling gang violence, a police official told AFP.

The contingent of 75 Guatemalan and eight Salvadoran soldiers will be joined by additional troops in the coming days, deputy police spokesman Lionel Lazarre told AFP.

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The personnel are part of the Kenyan-led force that began deploying in June last year. So far, there are 400 officers — most of them Kenyan, but also some from Jamaica and Belize — on site out of an expected 2,500.

But the force is under-equipped as it attempts to stamp out Haiti’s powerful, well-armed gangs, who have been accused of murder, rape, and kidnappings for ransom.

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The United Nations estimates that the gangs control about 85 per cent of the capital Port-au-Prince, and gang violence has not abated in the crisis-wracked Caribbean country since the multinational force arrived.

Two journalists covering the reopening of a hospital in Port-au-Prince and a policeman were killed on December 24 in a shootout with gangs.

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Attacks by armed groups have been escalating in multiple areas of the capital for more than a month.

In early December, more than 200 people were killed in an apparent hit order issued by a gang leader targeting voodoo practitioners, the UN says.

The month before, gunfire prompted the closing of the airport in Port-au-Prince to commercial traffic.

Authorities in Haiti’s transitional government have called on the UN to transform the Kenyan-led force into a full-fledged peacekeeping mission.

But the request, conveyed by the United States, has run into opposition from China and Russia, which have veto power in the UN Security Council.