Haiti

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The UN Security Council has approved deployment of a Kenyan-led force to Haiti to help battle criminal gangs the police cannot subdue alone. The mission will need to tread carefully – both in prior planning and once on the ground – to sidestep pitfalls in its path.

A federal judge in Miami on Tuesday sentenced a former Haitian senator to life in prison for conspiring to kill Haitian President Jovenel Moïse in 2021, which caused unprecedented turmoil in the Caribbean nation.

“Haiti is not hopeless”, the President of the UN General Assembly said on Monday during a meeting addressing the multiple crises besetting the Caribbean nation, alongside the presidents of the UN Security Council and Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).

Gang violence in Haiti is on the rise with new alliances being forged and expansion into rural areas previously considered safe, warns a new UN report. The report, published on Tuesday by the UN human rights office (OHCHR) and the UN political mission in Haiti (BINUH), calls for the urgent deployment of the multinational security support mission authorized by the UN Security Council in October.

Kenya's President William Ruto has appealed to the European Union (EU) to support the country's bid to deploy police officers to Haiti, even as he urged Europe to support Africa's quest to unlock its economic potential.

Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki told parliament this week that the amount will go towards preparations of the troops and buying of equipment. But it excludes any other country that may want to deploy, meaning the actual cost of the Haiti Multinational Security Support mission (MSS) as it is formally known could be higher.

Kenya's High Court is set to rule on the deployment of 1,000 Kenyan police officers to combat gang violence in Haiti. Critics argue that Kenya's constitution offers no provision to send police outside of the country.

A Kenyan court extended on Tuesday a temporary order barring the government from deploying hundreds of police officers to Haiti in a U.N.-approved mission aimed at helping the Caribbean nation tackle gang violence, a lawyer who filed the case said.

The security situation continues to deteriorate in Haiti as gang violence grows, and elections are crucial for the sustainable rule of law, the UN Special Representative in the country, María Isabel Salvador, told the Security Council on Monday. (Recent Report of the Secretary-General)