Medellín, Colombia – Human Rights Watch (HRW), an international NGO, published a report on February 24 calling on the United Nations to take over the Kenya-led Multinational Security Support (MSS) mission in Haiti. A day later, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres reportedly wrote the UN Security Council that it wasn’t time to take such action.
According to reporting from Margaret Besheer at Voice of America, Guterres’ wrote, “Such a transition could be considered, once significant progress has been made in substantially reducing gang territorial control.”
Haiti has suffered a recent spike of violence in its already dire humanitarian crisis. For years the country’s residents have suffered the effects of political instability, economic collapse, extreme gang-related violence and natural disasters. On July 7, 2021, Haiti’s then-President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated at his home, plunging the country into chaos with different armed groups vying for control.
According to the UN’s International Organization for Migration (IOM) over 1 million people have been displaced and over 5,600 were killed in gang violence in 2024 alone.
On the ground in Haiti since June, Kenyan police, backed by U.S. funding and with the support of other officers from Jamaica, El Salvador, Guatemala, the Bahamas and Belize, have faced many challenges.
A Kenyan police officer was shot and killed on Sunday in Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince. The New York Times reported that the officer sustained fatal injuries after his security team came under fire from suspected gang members, making him the first Kenyan officer to be killed since the MMS’ deployment to the Caribbean nation in June.
Since last year, Haiti has been calling for more help from international organizations. On October 21, Haitian Transitional Presidential Council President Leslie Voltaire addressed a letter to Secretary-General Guterres, explaining that “enormous challenges still remain to be overcome to allow the Haitian population to freely go about their business” despite the intervention of the Kenyan and Haitian police. In her letter, Voltaire does not explicitly request funding but rather that the MSS be transformed into a UN peacekeeping mission.
Earlier this week, HRW echoed Haiti’s appeal to the multinational body. In his report, Louis Charbonneau, United Nations Director at Human Rights Watch, wrote: “The United Nations leadership should support the Haitian authorities’ long-standing request to transform the troubled Kenyan-led Multinational Security Support (MSS) mission to Haiti into a UN operation.”
He also said the UN should build upon the mistakes of past missions in Haiti to work towards a sustainable peace.
“Restoring stability to Haiti is something past UN missions have succeeded in doing, though neither successive Haitian governments nor the UN were able to sustain that stability. The UN has the skills and know-how to do it again while avoiding the mistakes of past UN operations in Haiti – provided it has the resources,” Charbonneau wrote.
According to the letter to the Security Council obtained by the Voice of America, Guterres seems keen to keep the MSS in place, while providing it with more support.
“A realistic option is based on a dual-track strategy, with the United Nations assuming new roles to enable the MSS, the national police and Haitian authorities, to substantially reduce gang territorial control through peace enforcement,” wrote Guterres.
HRW’s Charbonneau argued that “sticking with MSS but providing additional resources” could help alleviate MSS’ “chronic shortage of funding.” However, even if the MSS reaches its full deployment of 2,500 personnel, “it’s insufficient” to solve the crisis.
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