Haiti, a half-island in the Caribbean, has been plagued for eons with natural disasters and historical interventions, first by France, then by the United States. In this century, another crippling earthquake, the assassination of a president and poor living conditions have led to extreme gang violence.
Amid the devastation of Haiti, the current United Nations Security Council debate over the country involves a proposal by the US, which lies just 578 miles from the Caribbean island, to field a UN peacekeeping mission. China and Russia object. Although a US diplomat said that the possibility was now on the back burner, Haiti sent a letter, seen by PassBlue, to UN Secretary-General António Guterres on Oct. 22, asking that the mission be converted to a peacekeeping operation.
In August 2021, Haiti suffered a devastating earthquake with many casualties. The quake also damaged Haiti’s economy, which by September 2021 had escalated to an enduring, full-blown gang war and other violent crimes in the capital, Port-au-Prince and elsewhere in the country. Haiti still has no permanent president, parliamentary quorum and a functional high court. Earthquakes have continued in 2024.
The number of victims of sexual violence, including rape, also increased during the most-recent reporting period, as of September 2024. The UN human rights report noted that “gangs have continued to use sexual violence to punish and spread fear.” The latest figures documented by the UN political mission in Haiti, Binuh, recorded 1,441 murders from June to August, an increase of 40 percent during the same period in 2023.
As a solution, the Security Council authorized a Kenyan-led police mission in October 2023. In June, after months of delays related to Kenyan legal challenges and difficult Council deliberations, the force was deployed to Haiti to prop up the country’s law enforcement, the Haitian National Police.
The mission, known as the MSS (Multinational Security Support), is financed through voluntary contributions held in a UN trust fund, with primarily money from the US government. The mandate of the MSS, which was endorsed by the Security Council, was renewed in September for a year.
Kenya’s first contingent of about 400 police officers to Haiti arrived in June. The goal is for Kenya to send a total of 1,000 officers. Most recently, Kenyan President William Ruto pledged to send 600 more police in November. Jamaica, Belize and the Bahamas have also deployed officers to the MSS.
Nor is it certain that all Haitians would welcome a UN peacekeeping mission. The last one, which lasted from 2010 to 2019, resulted in a cholera outbreak, which killed nearly 10,000 people.
But Edgar Leblanc Fils, the rotating president at the time of the Transitional Presidential Council of Haiti, told the UN General Assembly on Sept. 26 that a peacekeeping mission would assure more “stable funding,” as he recognized that past UN mistakes could not be repeated. An international mission could “build a future that is better” for the Haitian people, he added.
US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield told reporters on Sept. 30, when the MSS mandate was renewed: “We also must heed the clear calls from the Haitian government to ensure long-term sustainability of this effort.”
The US dropped its proposal in September for the Security Council to transform the MSS into a peace operation. “You can’t put a peacekeeping force into a war zone. We will look at it when the time is right. The best hope is a political solution and getting assistance into Haiti,” an American diplomat told PassBlue.
Russia sent a statement to PassBlue in which its UN mission outlined its reasons for rejecting a peacekeeping mission and said that China agreed:
“The reasons behind our position are obvious. First, the MSS has just started its deployment and is yet to become fully operational and to start fulfilling its main objectives. Second, MSS should be first provided with enough resources, as promised by the US and other donors, before we can start discussions about any adaptation or transformation of the mandate. Third, we believe the conditions in Haiti are not conducive for peacekeeping. Blue helmets are not fit to conduct robust anti-gang operations.”
Ecuador, an elected Council member, is still working with the US to continue to push for a peace mission in Haiti, although the Ecuadorean ambassador, José Javier De La Gasca, said that it is unlikely the effort will come to fruition this year. Yet, he and another Council diplomat both said separately that a letter from the Haitian presidential council is apparently being sent to formally request a mission. (On Oct. 22, a letter written in French from Leslie Voltaire, the current rotating president of the council, was sent to Guterres, asking explicitly that the MSS be transformed to a peace operation.)
A UN mission in Haiti will need $600 million annually, De La Gasca said. As of September, the fund reported only $67 million in voluntary contributions from member states, out of a total of $84 million pledged.
Secretary-General António Guterres said he would follow whatever the Security Council decided. But he complained that the MSS was underfunded.
“I must say that it’s really quite difficult to understand the fact that we’ve got to the point where we’re talking about a peacekeeping operation where there’s no peace to be maintained, no peace to keep there, in a situation where it’s impossible to find the money required for one of the most disastrous humanitarian situations in the whole world, honest . . . for me, this is something that I’m really struggling to understand,” he said.
So, it remains to be seen whether a UN peacekeeping mission will be established. For now, maintaining law and order is being left to a Kenyan-led force, supported by voluntary contributions, mainly from the US and Canada.
De La Gasca said of the Security Council’s obligation to Haitians: “We cannot fail them again.”
Dulcie Leimbach contributed reporting to this article.
This article has been updated to reflect more information about the letter Haiti officials sent to the UN regarding a peacekeeping mission.
Evelyn Leopold is a veteran United Nations reporter since 1990. She was a Reuters correspondent for 40 years and now freelances for a variety of publications. She has served in Britain, Germany and Kenya and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Overseas Press Club and the Newswomen’s Club of New York. She is chair of the Dag Hammarskjöld Fund for Journalists, was awarded a gold medal in reporting by the UN Correspondents Association and co-authored a book on women in the former East Germany.
Force is not the answer to the problems facing Haiti. But economic development and social wellbeing and justice to create hope for a better tomorrow!!