When Kenyan police arrived in Haiti as part of a U.N.-backed mission earlier this year to quell gang violence, hopes were high

A top Kenyan security advisor said on Wednesday that her nation backs calls from Haiti for the United Nations to consider turning a current international security mission in the Caribbean nation into a formal U.

The death toll from gang violence in Haiti this year rose to over 4,500 after 150 people were killed in the capital of Port-au-Prince over the past week, United Nations human rights chief Volker

The statement was issued just days after gangs launched a pre-dawn attack Tuesday around an upper-class community in Haiti’s capital, forcing residents armed with machetes and guns to fight side-by-side with police to repel gunmen.

As gangs escalate violence in Haiti, the UN Security Council debates upgrading the current security mission to a peacekeeping force despite opposition from Russia and China.