Haitian and Kenyan police try to drive gangs out of a rough part of Haiti’s capital

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Haitian troops, working with police from Kenya, have launched a joint operation to clear criminal gangs from one of the toughest neighborhoods in Haiti’s capital, Prime Minister Garry Conille said Wednesday.

Conille was speaking at a hospital in Port-au-Prince, where three Haitian police officers were recovering from wounds sustained Tuesday in a shootout during a joint operation in the impoverished, gang-controlled Bel Air neighborhood.

“I’m tired of seeing police officers being shot. I’m tired of going to funerals of police officers. We have to solve this problem of insecurity,” Conille said.

Conille did not provide further details about the operation or answer questions during his brief news conference, but he called on Haitians to cooperate with police and share information to reduce crime.

More than 3,200 murders were reported in Haiti from January to May. Gangs that control 80 percent of Port-au-Prince have displaced more than half a million people in recent years as they fight to control more territory.

“It’s not going to happen quickly,” Conille said. “We have to be patient.”

Earlier in the day, a police union reported that a female officer was killed Wednesday as she walked to work, with more than a dozen bullet holes in her windshield. Michelle Nathanielle Megine is one of about two dozen officers killed so far this year.

A UN-backed mission led by Kenya has so far sent some 400 police officers to Haiti to help quell gang violence. Police and soldiers from countries including Benin, Chad and Jamaica are also expected to arrive in the coming months, for a total of 2,500 foreign personnel.