UN Approves Stronger Haiti Mission
On Tuesday, the United Nations Security Council took a significant step by adopting a resolution aimed at transforming a UN-supported security mission in gang-ridden Haiti into a more robust, fully-fledged force that includes military troops.
This new force is set to accommodate up to 5,500 uniformed personnel, which encompasses both police officers and soldiers, a notable increase from the current mission that focuses solely on law enforcement. US Ambassador to the UN, Mike Waltz, expressed that the vote by 12 council members to shift the Multinational Security Support mission into this new gang suppression force—five times larger than its predecessor—demonstrates that the “international community is stepping up to share the burden.”
Right now, there are only about 1,000 police officers, mainly from Kenya, stationed in Haiti as part of the Multinational Security Mission (MSS). Their role is to assist the overwhelmed Haitian police in tackling the severe gang violence that has taken hold.
However, the mission, which received the green light in 2023, has seen a mix of outcomes.
“Every day, innocent lives are snuffed out by bullets, fire and fear,” Laurent Saint-Cyr, who heads the Haitian Transitional Presidential Council, told the UN’s signature diplomatic gathering last week.
“Entire neighborhoods are disappearing, forcing more than a million people into internal exile and reducing to nothing memories, investments, and infrastructure.
“This is the face of Haiti today, a country at war, a contemporary Guernica, a human tragedy on America’s doorstep,” he said.
Saint-Cyr had thrown his support behind the US and Panamanian proposal to evolve the MSS into a more resilient force for an initial period of one year.
“The Council can help restore peace in a nation currently suffocated by merciless gangs,” Panama’s ambassador to the UN Eloy Alfaro de Alba said ahead of the vote.
Kenya’s president William Ruto said last week that “with the right personnel, adequate resources, appropriate equipment and necessary logistics, Haiti’s security can be restored.”
The significant boost in force will come hand in hand with the establishment of a support office within the UN. This idea was proposed a few months back by Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, aiming to ensure that the necessary logistical and financial backing is in place.
UN Approves Stronger Haiti Mission
