UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has welcomed the decision by two Caribbean Community (CARICOM) member states, Jamaica and The Bahamas, to join a standing group of international partners providing high-level strategic guidance for any reorganized security force in Haiti.
The group, which already includes the United States, Canada, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Kenya, is tasked with offering “high-level strategic guidance, oversight, political decisions, and high-level oversight for any revamped force of security,” according to UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric. He said Friday at the UN daily briefing that the organization “looks forward to collaborating closely with that group.”
Dujarric added that the UN is encouraged by the Security Council’s readiness to take further action against armed gangs in Haiti. “I think we’ve given you a clear image of the horrific situation that these armed gangs caused,” he said.
He reiterated Guterres’ recommendation that the Multinational Security Support mission (MSS) be reinforced with UN logistical support and operational funding through the UN peacekeeping budget. He also repeated the Secretary-General’s call for the full implementation of UN sanctions and progress in Haiti’s political process.
The dire humanitarian situation also took center stage at the Security Council this week. Panama, which holds the Council presidency for August, warned that the Haiti Humanitarian Response Plan for 2025 remains underfunded. Of the US$908 million required, only 19.5% has been pledged.
Panama’s representative Eloy Alfaro De Alba told the Council Thursday that the shortfall “is literally a difference between life and mortality.” He said, “Not closing this gap is more than a technical statistic; it’s literally the difference between death and life.”
Guterres himself has said Haiti remains “shamefully ignored and woefully underfunded.” He noted that “less than 10 per cent of US$908,000,000 required to support 3.9 million people this year have been received, making Haiti the least-funded humanitarian appeal in the world.”
Since the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse on July 7, 2021, criminal gangs have tightened their grip on Port-au-Prince, displacing thousands while carrying out murders, kidnappings, and sexual violence against women and children.
