The United Nations Security Council voted unanimously Monday to extend for another year the mandate of the armed security mission helping Haiti fight armed gangs.
The 15-0 vote guarantees the presence of the Kenya-led Multinational Security Support mission in Haiti until October 2, 2025. But it doesn’t address a fundamental problem of the struggling effort: money.
The mission, which currently only has 410 foreign officers on the ground in Port-au-Prince, needs “substantial resources” for its deployment and sustained operations, said Kenya’s new envoy to the U.N, Erastus Ekitela Lokaale. He welcomed the vote, but appealed to U.N. member nations to make “voluntary contributions” to hasten the “full deployment and delivery of its mandate.”
“I must also emphasize that while the … mission is a crucial and innovative intervention, it is only a part of the solution,” he said. “Haiti’s stability will only be accomplished through a multipronged approach that addresses the root causes of its challenges.”
Ahead of the vote, the U.N. Sanctions Committee imposed sanctions on its first Haitian politician, and on a gang leader. Prophane Victor, a former member of Haiti’s Lower House of Deputies, was sanctioned on Friday for weapons trafficking and promoting political violence in Haiti’s Artibonite region along with Luckson Elan, the leader of the Gran Grif gang. Both men were sanctioned earlier in the week by the U.S. Treasury Department. U.N. sanctions are the toughest designations globally and blacklisted individuals are banned from visiting most countries, including the neighboring Dominican Republic.
The U.N. also released a report on Monday showing that hunger is worsening in Haiti. The latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification report said 5.4 million Haitians are suffering from deepening hunger, with 2 million —18% of the population — experiencing severe hunger. Of this group, the report said, 6,000 people are facing catastrophic levels of lack of food.
Washington is so far the largest contributor to the mission, providing over $300 million that has gone toward the construction of a base of operations near the Port-au-Prince international and domestic airports, armored vehicles, communications equipment and other assistance. A U.N. trust fund set up for contributions has six nations providing $85.3 million — far less than the estimated $600 million a year Kenya has said is required.
Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., said the renewed mandate would “put the country on the path to peace and prosperity” and “sends a strong message to the people of Haiti: The world is standing with you.”
But she acknowledged the mission faces funding challenges. “Additional financial contributions are urgently needed to support this mission in the near-term, and we strongly urge other donors to consider making contributions,” she said.
The funding shortfall has led to a slow deployment of the 2,500 security personnel the mission is expected to have, and affected the effectiveness of the ill-equipped force in a country where armed gangs control all major roads out of the capital and have recently begun attacks at sea. As part of the extension, Haiti and the leadership of the mission must regularly update the Security Council and the U.N. Secretary-General of the progress of deployment.
To address the money issues, the U.S. had pushed to have the operation upgraded into a formal U.N. peacekeeping mission, which would guarantee U.N. funding. But during negotiations ahead of Monday’s vote both China and Russia opposed the move.
China’s envoy to the U.N. told the council Monday that Beijing opposed transforming the operation into a peacekeeping mission, saying discussion of other options would “only interfere with the implementation of the mission’s mandate.”
“The U.N. has sent multiple peacekeeping operations in Haiti, but the results have never been satisfactory, and the lessons learned have been extremely profound,” the Chinese diplomat said.
Still, Beijing encouraged other countries to help pay for the existing mission. The second largest contributor to the U.N., China has not yet made a contribution to the mission, nor has Russia, according to the trust fund’s data.
“We note that the mission still has a rather big gap in funding, and that a large portion of the pledged funds has not yet been realized,” the envoy added. “China calls on the relevant contributing countries to fulfill their commitments as soon as possible and to provide the mission with stable financial resources.”
A Russian diplomat told the council that Moscow opposes any new structure for the mission, saying that military assistance alone would not fix the country’s problems and pointedly noting the “American weapons that have flooded into Haiti.”
The current mission to Haiti, the Russian envoy said, has only been on the ground for three months and needs more time to expand. “Until this happens we believe it is premature to plan any transformations in the international presence, or any changes.”
Senior Biden administration officials said Monday they have heard strong support within the council for the peacekeeping conversion, which the president of Haiti’s transitional ruling council, Edgard Leblanc Fils, asked the U.N. to approve last week. Any nation that opposes the move needs to explain why they would be opposing “a very clear call from the host,” which is typically the trigger for a peacekeeping operation, U.S. officials said.
The U.S. said it removed the language requesting the transition to a peacekeeping operation from Monday’s draft resolution. It will now begin the more formalized process of seeking such a mission.
“This is typically how it has worked in the past with peacekeeping operations; the host country issues the call … and the Security Council works from there,” an official said. “We look to what the host country wants, what the citizens of that country need and in this case, both are very clear. The host country has made an explicit call for a peacekeeping operation.”
There is no indication that Leblanc — who is facing a fight to remain in the leadership role after Sunday and did not share his U.N. speech with fellow council members before addressing the general assembly last week — consulted with the rest of the council before speaking.
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