Kenya set for full Haiti deployment amid call for shift to UN mission

UNITED NATIONS, UNITED STATES - Kenya is aiming to complete its full deployment of a stabilization force in violence-torn Haiti by January, President William Ruto said Thursday, as Haiti's leader suggested making it a UN peacekeeping mission.

The three-month-old security force to combat spiraling insecurity in the Caribbean nation is currently a Kenyan-led multinational policing operation, and changing it into a UN-mandated force would require a Security Council vote.

"Kenya will deploy the additional contingent towards attaining the target of all the 2,500 police officers by January next year," Ruto said in a speech to the UN General Assembly.

"Kenya and other Caribbean and African countries are ready to deploy, but are hindered by insufficient equipment, logistics and funding," he said.

Ruto called on member states to "stand in solidarity with the people of Haiti by providing necessary support."

Criminal gangs control more than 80% of the capital Port-au-Prince, as well as key roads around the country.

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Edgard Leblanc Fils, the head of Haiti's transitional council, told the General Assembly Thursday he "would like to see a thought being given to transforming the security support mission into a peacekeeping mission under the mandate of the United Nations."

Leblanc Fils said that such a change would allow for the challenge of funding the mission to be resolved, while helping "to strengthen the commitment of member states to security in Haiti."

"I am convinced that this change of status, whilst recognizing that the errors of the past cannot be repeated, would guarantee the full success of the mission in Haiti," he said.

The United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti, which deployed from 2004 to 2017, was tarnished by accusations of sexual abuse by peacekeepers and the force's accidental introduction of cholera, which killed some 10,000 people.

The United States has also backed consideration of putting the new force under the UN flag to ensure a predictable source of funding.

But the move faces daunting odds in the Security Council, where China and Russia hold veto power.

A draft UN Security Council resolution extending the mandate of the security mission contains a call "to consider" transforming the deployment into a UN-mandated peacekeeping mission.

It is due to be debated Monday.

Haitian interim prime minister Garry Conille warned Wednesday that "we're nowhere near winning this" as he stressed the battle against the gangs would not be successful without outside help.

The United States announced on Wednesday $160 million of new aid for Haiti, bringing the amount of US aid to the troubled Caribbean country to $1.3 billion since 2021.

Leblanc Fils said his country still needed "much more in terms of personnel and also equipment to be able to solve the security problems and allow elections to take place."

Washington on Wednesday also announced sanctions against two Haitians linked to the country's powerful gangs.