UN Extends Haiti Mission for Another Year

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Facts

  • On Monday, the UN Security Council (UNSC) unanimously voted to renew the mandate of the Multinational Security Support (MSS) mission to assist Haiti's national police in cracking down on gang violence for another year.[1][2]
  • The resolution — brought forward by the US and Ecuador — extends the Kenya-led security mission, which currently has around 407 officers on the ground in Port-au-Prince, until Oct. 2, 2025.[3][4]
  • The UNSC has further called on the international community to provide voluntary contributions to help the mission speed up the full deployment of its planned 2.5K personnel as well as the delivery of its mandate.[2][5]
  • According to the Associated Press, China and Russia successfully removed a paragraph from the resolution recognizing the call by the head of Haiti's transitional presidential council to launch talks to transform the mission into a UN peacekeeping operation.[6]
  • Prior to the vote, both the UNSC Sanctions Committee and the US approved sanctions on former Haitian lawmaker Prophane Victor over his alleged involvement in arms trafficking and gang leader Luckson Elan.[7][8]
  • Meanwhile, the latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification report showed that nearly half of Haitians, or 5.4M people, are suffering from acute food insecurity due to gang violence, including at least 6K facing catastrophic levels of hunger.[5][9][10]

Sources: [1]Al Jazeera, [2]UN News, [3]The Hill, [4]The Haitian Times, [5]Miami Herald, [6]Associated Press, [7]Security Council Report, [8]US Department of State, [9]Reuters and [10]Integrated Food Security Phase Classification.

Narratives

  • Pro-establishment narrative, as provided by Voice of America and Carnegieendowment. Delayed for months due to political turmoil in Haiti, the initial MSS deployment only arrived in the country in June — but has since had some progress despite funding challenges. There's still a long way to go to address gang violence and bring stability back to the country, and renewing this innovative mission is only part of the solution. The next step is to turn that into a traditional UN peacekeeping operation.
  • Establishment-critical narrative, as provided by Liberation News. None of the US-sponsored interventions in Haiti have been particularly successful, including the just-renewed MSS mission. It's inconceivable that in the face of yet another failure, the mandate for this occupation was extended — and now there's talk about turning that into a traditional peacekeeping mission. Only Haitians can come up with real solutions for their plight.

Predictions