The UN Security Council asked Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Friday to come up with options to help combat Haiti’s armed gangs, including a possible peacekeeping force and a non-UN multinational force.
A resolution adopted unanimously by the council asks Mr Guterres to report back on “a full range” of options within 30 days to improve the security situation, including additional training for the Haitian National Police and providing support to combat illegal arms trafficking to the impoverished Caribbean nation.
It also authorises up to 70 UN police and corrections advisers to scale up support and training for Haiti’s understaffed and underfunded national police force.
And it “encourages” countries, especially in the Caribbean region, to respond to appeals from Haiti’s Prime Minister and from Mr Guterres for the deployment of an international specialised force.
Haiti’s Prime Minister Ariel Henry sent an urgent appeal last October for “the immediate deployment of a specialised armed force, in sufficient quantity” to stop the gangs.
However, more than eight months later no country has stepped up to lead such a force.
Mr Guterres, who visited Haiti earlier this month, called last week for a robust international force to help the Haitian National Police “defeat and dismantle the gangs”.
He said the estimate by the UN independent expert for Haiti, William O’Neill, who said up to 2,000 additional anti-gang police officers are needed is no exaggeration.
Mr O’Neill, who concluded a 10-day trip to Haiti this month, is an American lawyer who has been working on Haitian issues for more than 30 years and helped establish the Haitian National Police in 1995.
The gangs have grown in power since the July 7, 2021, assassination of President Jovenel Moise and are now estimated to control up to 80 per cent of the capital.
A surge in killings, rapes and kidnappings has led to a violent uprising by civilian vigilante groups.
Compounding the gang warfare is the country’s political crisis: Haiti was stripped of all democratically elected institutions when the terms of the country’s remaining 10 senators expired in early January.
The resolution, co-sponsored by the US and Ecuador, “strongly urges” all countries to prohibit the supply, sale or transfer of weapons to anyone supporting gang violence and criminal activities.
