Haiti

Kenya dispatched a new contingent of police officers to Haiti on Monday, moving to reinforce an overstretched multinational mission that has struggled to contain the country’s powerful armed gangs. 

After the Kenya-led Multinational Security Support (MSS) mission failed to stem Haiti’s rapidly deteriorating security situation, the UN Security Council approved Resolution 2793 on 30 September to replace the MSS with a new force. Slated to eventually number 5,500 police and military officers, the GSF officially started operating two weeks later, but for the time-being it is reliant on the contingent of around 1,000 MSS personnel deployed last year.

The UN Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution on Friday that renews sanctions in Haiti for another year as armed gangs continue to terrorize the population. The sanctions regime was established in 2022 and includes a travel ban, asset freeze and arms embargo.

Millions of Haitians are facing food insecurity as armed groups continue to expand their territorial control around the country, the latest internationally-recognised IPC hunger report found. 

The UN Security Council on Tuesday authorized a new multinational Gang Suppression Force (GSF) in Haiti to replace the Kenyan-led security support mission, amid escalating gang violence, widespread rights abuses and a humanitarian emergency affecting all aspects of life in the island nation.

Foreign Ministers from across the Americas met on the margins of the UN General Assembly on Tuesday to rally for greater support for Haiti. … The discussions were held as the Security Council prepares to resume debate on a proposal by the Secretary-General to establish a new UN Support Office in Haiti. 

“I’m ashamed on behalf of the world that we cannot find it in ourselves to be more compassionate, to be more kind, to recognise what people here are going through,” said Tom Fletcher, who heads the UN emergency relief agency, OCHA, during a visit to the Caribbean nation. … Half of all Haitians face food insecurity and unprecedented levels of forced displacement which tripled last year to over one million people, according to an update by OCHA, which noted that large scale displacements have continued into 2025. 

With armed gangs expanding their influence, self-defence groups morphing into gang-like entities and public officials acting with impunity, Haiti is slowly becoming something like the Wild West, according to William O’Neill, the UN’s designated expert on human rights for the Caribbean island nation.

Nearly 1.3 million people in the Caribbean country have fled their homes, with an additional 15,000 uprooted last week after armed attacks in the communes of Dessalines and Verrettes in the Artibonite department. … More than halfway through the year, the Haitian humanitarian response plan has received less than 9 per cent of the $908 million required.  

Amid runaway gang violence and crumbling state authority, the Security Council on Monday unanimously extended the mandate of the UN’s political mission in Haiti until the end of the year. Aid agencies remain deeply concerned by the humanitarian crisis playing out across the Caribbean island nation.