A Multinational Security Support Mission (MSS) officer died and eight others sustained injuries in a road accident in Haiti on Sunday evening, August 31.
According to MSS spokesperson Jack Ombaka, the incident occurred at around 5:00 p.m. along the Kenscoff–Pétion-Ville road at the Perlerin 9 area during a recovery operation involving two MaxxPro vehicles.
“One vehicle was towing another when it developed mechanical problems, leading to the tragic accident,” Ombaka said in a statement.
The crash claimed the lives of one MSS officer and a Haitian civilian. Both were pronounced dead at Lambert Santé Hospital in Pétion-Ville.
Eight other officers were injured, three of them critically. Ombaka noted that the three require urgent medical evacuation to the Dominican Republic for specialized treatment after receiving initial care at the Aspen Level 2 Hospital at LSA 2.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of those who lost their loved ones and with the injured officers as they recover,” Ombaka added.
This marks the third fatality involving MSS officers since Kenyan police were deployed to the Caribbean nation in June 2024. Earlier this year, Officer Samuel Tompoi Kaetuai was fatally shot during a gang attack in the Savien region, while Officer Bénédict Kabiru was killed in a gang ambush in Pont-Sondé, Artibonite region.
The latest tragedy comes just weeks after three MSS officers were injured in clashes with armed gangs in Port-au-Prince, where heavily armed groups ambushed residents and torched two armored personnel carriers.
MSS officers, drawn mainly from Kenya, have been operating in Haiti as part of international efforts to restore security in the violence-ridden nation.
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