Haiti

The United Nations peacekeeping mission in Haiti today voiced concern at reports that arms are being distributed as the impoverished and earthquake-devastated country prepares to hold elections next month.

Eight months after the catastrophic earthquake, Haiti has fended off a second-wave disaster of epidemics and unrest, but the impoverished nation’s political, social and economic situation will remain fragile, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says in a new report.

Haiti’s police force is becoming substantially more effective, capturing and arresting a series of suspects accused of recent kidnappings and sending a clear signal to criminal elements, the United Nations peacekeeping mission to the Caribbean country says.

The humanitarian needs of people affected by January’s earthquake in Haiti remain immense, United Nations agencies and their partners said today in a report, which also takes stock of the response effort and presents lessons learned from the challenging and complex emergency.

Haitian President René Préval has set 28 November as the date for the people of the earthquake-devastated nation to vote for his successor.

The deployment of 680 further officers as a result of today’s Council resolution will bring the total number of UN Police (UNPOL) serving with the UN mission, which is known as MINUSTAH, to 4,391.

The United Nations and its international partners have pledged full “technical, logistical and material” support to help Haiti hold timely elections, viewed as a crucial step in renewing the State after the huge human and material losses suffered in January’s devastating earthquake.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today urged the Security Council to endorse a rapid strengthening of the technical capacity of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) to enable it provide better support to recovery efforts following January’s earthquake in the Caribbean island nation.

Earthquake-devastated Haiti should be able to hold elections by the end of the year, U.N. envoy Bill Clinton said on Wednesday, as the impoverished Caribbean nation works to have a legitimate government in place to oversee its multibillion dollar reconstruction.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today named Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Edmond Mulet as his Special Representative in Haiti in succession to Hédi Annabi, who died in the earthquake that devastated the impoverished Caribbean country in January.