Kenya poised to fully deploy to Haiti despite calls for UN mission move

Vendors carrying their goods travel along a rocky, cliff-top road to avoid gangs in the Port-au-Prince area – Copyright AFP STR

Gregory WALTON

Kenya aims to complete the deployment of a stabilization force in violence-torn Haiti by January, President William Ruto said on Thursday. The Haitian leader has suggested turning it into a UN peacekeeping mission.

The three-month-old security force tasked with combating the Caribbean nation’s growing insecurity is currently a multinational police operation led by Kenya. Transforming it into a UN-mandated force would require a Security Council vote.

“Kenya will deploy the additional contingent to achieve the target of having all 2,500 police officers by January next year,” Ruto said in a speech to the UN General Assembly.

“Kenya and other Caribbean and African countries are ready to deploy but are hampered by insufficient equipment, logistics and financing,” he said.

Ruto called on member states to “show solidarity with the people of Haiti by providing the necessary support.”

Criminal gangs control more than 80 percent of the capital Port-au-Prince, as well as major roads in the country.

– Powerful gangs –

Edgard Leblanc Fils, the coordinator of Haiti’s transitional council, told the General Assembly on Thursday that he would “like to see consideration given to transforming the security support mission into a peacekeeping mission under the mandate of the United Nations.”

Leblanc Fils said such a change would make it possible to resolve the challenge of financing the mission, while at the same time helping “to strengthen the commitment of member states to security in Haiti.”

“I am confident that this change of status, recognizing that the mistakes of the past cannot be repeated, would ensure the full success of the mission in Haiti,” he said.

The United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti, which operated from 2004 to 2017, faced allegations of sexual abuse by peacekeepers and the inadvertent spread of cholera by troops, which killed some 10,000 people.

The United States has also considered placing the new force under the UN flag, to provide a predictable source of funding.

But the measure has met with strong resistance in the Security Council, where China and Russia have veto power.

Haiti’s interim Prime Minister Garry Conille warned on Wednesday that “we are still far from victory,” stressing that the fight against the gangs could not be won without outside help.

The United States announced $160 million in new aid to Haiti on Wednesday, bringing the total amount of U.S. aid to the troubled Caribbean nation since 2021 to $1.3 billion.

Leblanc Fils said his country still needs “much more personnel and also equipment to solve the security problems and to be able to hold elections.”

Washington also announced sanctions on Wednesday against two Haitians with ties to the country’s powerful gangs.