The United Nations Security Council has voted Monday to authorize an international force to support Haiti’s police amid a gang-driven security crisis. Acting under Chapter VII of the UN Charter, 13 of the 15 council members voted for the non-UN Multinational Security Support Mission. China and Russia abstained. Haiti has repeated called for help in supporting its national police.
“The vote on this text represents significant progress towards resolving the multidimensional crisis that Haiti is going through,” Haitian Foreign Minister Jean Victor Geneus told the council. “It is a glimmer of hope for the people that have for too long been suffering the consequences of a difficult political, socioeconomic, security and humanitarian situation.“
In Haiti, millions of people need humanitarian aid to fight hunger, amid the deteriorating security situation. The UN warns that humanitarian access is seriously compromised by insecurity.
Since the start of 2023, killings, kidnappings, and sexual violence by criminal groups in and around Port-au-Prince, have increased dramatically. According to the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), between January and mid-August, at least 2,439 people have been killed, a further 902 injured, 951 people have been kidnapped.
Haiti has also seen an alarming increase in mob killings and lynchings of suspected gang members. Between April 24 and mid-August, more than 350 people have been lynched by local people and vigilante groups. Those killed include 310 alleged gang members, 46 members of the public and a police officer, according to OHCHR.
Resolution 2699 (2023), drafted by the United States and Ecuador, authorizes the Security Support Mission for an initial period of one year, with a review after nine months. Diplomats did not say how fast the force would be on the ground in Haiti or how big it would be, but it will likely take several months before it can deploy.
Speaking to reporters after the vote, Geneus said he hoped the mission could deploy quickly.
“We hope as soon as possible, because the people are suffering,” he said. “The gangs are really raising hell in Haiti, so they have to be stopped as soon as possible, with all means necessary.”
Kenya has volunteered to lead the Multinational Security Support Mission and has pledged about a thousand police officers.
“We are steadfast in the belief that your adoption of this resolution will be a seminal contribution to the renaissance of Haiti’s security,” Kenyan Ambassador Martin Kimani told the council.
Kenya’s legislature still must approve its offer to lead the multinational force.
The Caribbean countries of the Bahamas, Jamaica, and Antigua and Barbuda have also said they will contribute personnel. A senior US administration official told reporters Monday that several countries have expressed interest in contributing to the mission and were waiting for a strong mandate from the council before stepping forward.
The cost of implementing the operation will be borne by voluntary contributions and support from individual Member States and regional organizations. The Security Council called on Member States and regional organizations to contribute personnel, equipment, and necessary financial and logistic resources based on the mission’s urgent needs.
The United States has committed about $200 million in support, including logistics and equipment for the mission, but is not sending any personnel.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said, “While this action represents important progress, the United States renews its urgent call to political actors, including Prime Minister [Ariel] Henry and members of the opposition, to broaden consensus and restore democratic order in Haiti.”
“The Haitian government and civil society, the UN, and other international partners have long called for this mission, which will provide critical international assistance for the Haitian National Police to address gang violence and pave the way toward long-term stability in Haiti,” US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said in a statement.
Nearly a year ago, the government of Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry asked the Security Council to urgently send help. Henry repeated that appeal during his address to the UN General Assembly last month. He said a force combining police and military personnel would be an initial step in creating an environment for the government to function again.
Violent armed gangs control much of the capital and have spread to other parts of the country. They have carried out massacres and kidnappings, human trafficking and sexual violence. The deteriorating security situation has also aggravated the humanitarian crisis, with almost half the population, around 4.35 million people, experiencing acute hunger.
The UN representative in Haiti, Maria Isabel Salvador, welcomed the authorization of the mission as a “positive and decisive step to bring peace and stability to the country.”
“It is important to emphasize that, unlike recent international missions deployed in Haiti, the MSS mission is not a UN mission,” she noted.
Haiti has had difficulties in the past with UN peacekeepers deployed to help stabilize the country. After the 2010 earthquake, a cholera epidemic ravaged the country, infecting more than 800,000 people and killing an estimated 10,000. The outbreak was traced to sewage from a UN peacekeeping camp that contaminated a main water supply. There have also been scores of paternity suits against UN peacekeepers.
In the new multinational mission’s mandate, both issues are addressed. There are provisions for countries sending personnel “to adopt appropriate wastewater management” and requests for oversight mechanisms to prevent human rights violations or abuses “in particular sexual exploitation and abuse.”
Personnel deployed to Haiti must also be vetted, and any who are credibly accused of misconduct while deployed will be sent home.
The security crisis in the Caribbean country compounds an already dire humanitarian situation. The humanitarian situation in the country is increasingly grim and likely to deteriorate even further. The United Nations estimates that more than 5.2 million people - 46 percent of the population - require humanitarian aid this year. Among those in need are nearly 3 million children – the highest number on record.
Kidnappings, killings and gang violence have worsened the economic situation and increased insecurity, particularly in the capital. Gangs control or influence 80 percent of the capital, Port-au-Prince. They also control strategic access routes in the country and have expanded their criminal activities throughout Haiti. Armed groups commit serious abuses against the population, including large-scale sexual violence, forcing entire communities to flee.
Some 200,000 people have been internally displaced due to violence since 2022, and tens of thousands have attempted to flee the country. Despite repeated calls from the UN that Haitians should not be forcibly returned to Haiti, other countries have returned nearly 74,000 people to Haiti in the first half of 2023.
Violence, widespread poverty, rising costs of living, low agricultural production, and expensive food imports have exacerbated existing food insecurity in Haiti, leaving many women, men, and children suffering from hunger and malnutrition.
According to the latest IPC analysis, 4.35 million people - more than 40 percent of the population – are acutely food insecure between August 2023 and February 2024. About 1.4 million people are suffering from emergency levels of hunger.
The United Nations Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) for Haiti requires US$720 million to help more than three million people. Yet as of October 3, the HRP is only 29 percent funded. In July, the World Food Programme (WFP) announced it has been forced to cut the number of people receiving emergency food assistance in Haiti by 25 percent, due to dwindling funding levels.
Some information for this report provided by VOA.
Further information
Full text: Resolution S/RES/2699 (2023), The question concerning Haiti (MSS), adopted by the UN Security Council on October 2, 2023
http://undocs.org/en/S/RES/2699(2023)
Full text: Security Council Authorizes Multinational Security Support Mission for Haiti for Initial Period of One Year, by Vote of 13 in Favour with 2 Abstentions, UN Security Counil, press release, published October 2, 2023
https://press.un.org/en/2023/sc15432.doc.htm