China, Russia Oppose New UN Peacekeeping Mission in Haiti

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Facts

  • At a meeting of the UN Security Council arranged on Wednesday at their request, China and Russia expressed their opposition to transforming the Multinational Security Support (MSS) mission in Haiti into a UN peacekeeping mission.[1][2]
  • Representatives for both countries alleged that conditions on the ground would expose peacekeepers to great security risks, with China's Geng Shuang calling for the council to focus on enabling the MSS to fulfill its recently renewed mandate.[1][3]
  • This comes as Ecuador and the US put a revised draft resolution to convert the mission under Kenya's leadership to a blue helmet operation under silence procedure last week, following an official request by Haiti's transitional government.[2][4]
  • According to the latest figures, Haiti has seen over 4.5K gang-related deaths this year amid surges in violence in Port-au-Prince. On top of that, an estimated 700K people, half of them children, are currently internally displaced in the country.[5][6]
  • Long present in Haiti, armed gangs have grown in strength and influence amid the power vacuum left in the aftermath of the 2021 killing of Pres. Jovenel Moïse. Earlier this year, they launched attacks on prisons and state institutions.[7][8]
  • Haiti called for the support of an international security force in October 2022, but it wasn't until one year later that the UNSC authorized it. Troops first arrived there in June 2024 and the deployment is currently falling far below pledges made by multiple countries.[8][9]

Sources: [1]Associated Press, [2]Haiti Libre, [3]United Nations, [4]Security Council Report, [5]The Haitian Times, [6]France 24, [7]Al Jazeera, [8]Washington Post and [9]Reuters.

Narratives

  • Pro-establishment narrative, as provided by Miami Herald. It's hard to understand the reasoning leading China and Russia to oppose an official UN peacekeeping mission in Haiti. As the understaffed and underfunded MSS has failed to address gang violence in Haiti, this transition has become the only hope for the Caribbean country.
  • Establishment-critical narrative, as provided by International Crisis Group. Though a new UN peacekeeping operation would secure enough funding and troops for the mission in Haiti, this move is by no means a silver bullet in the fight against gangs — and it could prove deleterious to such an effort. Given the situation on the ground and past experiences in the country, deploying blue helmets to Haiti would be a mistake.