At the UN Security Council yesterday, foreign governments are being urged to keep their funding pledges to the Kenyan-led armed security force in Haiti, where armed criminal groups continue to sow misery and despair while controlling more than 80 percent of the capital.in Italian
“We call on all international partners to do more and give more,” U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield said at a Security Council meeting Wednesday. “The Haitian people deserve, finally, to live in peace — to go to work, to school, or to a place of worship without the threat of violence.”
In all, Kenya has volunteered to deploy 1,000 of its specialized police officers to lead what is called the Multinational Security Support Mission. Six other nations, mainly from the Caribbean and Africa, are also expected to send personnel. But the success of the mission and the size of its force depend heavily on contributions from the international community, which has pledged $118 million in support but has so far deposited only $21 million into a United Nations trust fund.
The United States is by far the largest contributor, providing more than $309 million for equipment, training and construction of a base in Port-au-Prince.
Addressing the UN Security Council on the ongoing crisis, Thomas-Greenfield and others called on the international community to accelerate efforts to provide the country with the support needed to build democratic institutions and restore peace and stability in the face of alarming violence.
“Member states must move from words to action when it comes to supporting the mission,” said Bob Rae, Canada’s ambassador to the UN. “Let’s all recognize one thing: Haitians, like all of us, need security to be able to leave their homes without fear of being killed, kidnapped or raped.”
The first contingent of 200 Kenyan police arrived in Haiti last week and have slowly begun patrolling the streets. While armed gangs have not made good on their threat to halt the deployment, they have tried to test the forces, temporarily taking over one police station before police regained control and then burning down another station. Both are located south of the capital, which has become off-limits to most Haitians.
María Isabel Salvador, head of the United Nations Integrated Office in Port-au-Prince, known by its French acronym BINUH, told the Council that the arrival of the specialized officers after months of delay is an important step and renews hope for the Haitian people. However, with 3,252 murders recorded since January, including 20 police officers killed by armed gangs, Haiti remains in a vicious cycle of killings by armed gangs and vigilante groups.
“I remain deeply disturbed by the indiscriminate violence and serious abuses perpetrated by armed gangs against children. Equally concerning are the frequent threats and attacks against human rights defenders, journalists and members of the judiciary, many of whom have been forced to limit or stop their work, or even flee the country,” she said.
Salvador said that recurring gang attacks since February 29 have also “seriously hampered national and international efforts to accelerate the recruitment process of new police officers and attrition rates in the national police continue to be high.”
Salvador’s comments come as the Security Council weighs the fate of its political office in Haiti, whose mission some members say is even more important now and necessary to the mission’s success amid criticism that previous foreign interventions have failed to break the cycle of instability in Haiti.
Some optimism at the UN
At the meeting, council members expressed cautious optimism about what they described as new momentum in Haiti after months of gang attacks, closed airports and ports and a capital paralyzed by violence.
At a separate news conference, Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Brian A. Nichols and Assistant Secretary of State for Narcotics and Law Enforcement Todd D. Robinson both touted the mission’s arrival and the changes underway.
Neither Nichols nor Robinson would say when the next contingent of Kenyan officers would arrive. Robinson also declined to elaborate on whether, for example, Kenyan forces would go into gang-controlled areas, a question many Haitians have. The mission’s mandate, he said, is to work with Haitian police but at all times, “Haitian forces will be at the forefront of all these operations.”
For now, the United States is considering a maximum capacity of about 1,000 personnel for the mission but will assess the mission’s needs once that number is reached, officials said.
Nichols said U.S. support for the Haitian people remains unwavering and praised the international experience and technical expertise of Prime Minister Garry Conille, who praised the international community’s support for Haiti but also criticized their approach.
“The challenges facing Haiti are enormous with an inflation rate of over 27%, nearly 50% of jobs lost in the textile sector alone and food insecurity affecting 4.5 million people, not to mention 600,000 [personnes déplacées à l’intérieur] and 500,000 children out of school,” he said. “There is also violence that is paralyzing hospitals and health centers. Dozens of police stations and prisons have been damaged or destroyed and thousands of prisoners are at large.”
Before his appearance at the U.N., where he has worked as a longtime development expert, Conille visited Washington. There, he and his delegation met with members of the Biden administration, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken, congressional lawmakers and financial donors, who have cut funding to Haiti because of ongoing gang violence and concerns about corruption.
After meeting with representatives of the Inter-American Development Bank, which is currently assessing the financial impact of recent gang attacks on infrastructure, Conille announced that Haiti would receive $40 million in aid.
An IDB spokesperson told the Miami Herald that the $40 million is not necessarily new money but unallocated funds from Haiti’s 2023-24 net income allocation for concessional resources.
Addressing the Security Council, Conille said: “Together with our international partners, we must review the support given to Haiti.”
Conille has less than two years to give Haiti a newly elected president and parliament by February 2026. That in itself is a huge challenge. But in his speech to the Security Council, he also talked about reforming the Haitian National Police and establishing adequate infrastructure that meets modern building standards, as well as reorganizing some cities, rehabilitating and restoring basic functional social services, and creating employment opportunities for communities.
For Haiti to “escape once and for all the spiral of security missions,” Conille said, “we must redefine our approaches so that at the end of the MSS mission, the country has strong and effective institutions and that our international partners and we ourselves have a sense of accomplishment.”
With Miami Herald
