UN to cease operations in Haiti

The head of the United Nations Stabilization Mission (MUNUSTAH), Sandra Honoré, says the mission will cease operations in Haiti within six months.

Addressing the United Nations Security Council on Tuesday, Honoré said that the progress achieved during the past 13 years in Haiti’s stabilization process is notable and it “is therefore timely to reshape the partnership among the international community, the United Nations and Haiti with a view to ensuring the sustainability of this progress.

The UN mission, established in June 2004 by a UN Security Council resolution, succeeded a Multinational Interim Force (MIF) after then President Bertrand Aristide departed Haiti for exile in the aftermath of an armed conflict, which spread, to several cities across the country.

Honoré says government leadership and ownership will be as crucial for a sustainable transition process that underpins the implementation of the Secretary-General’s recommendation for the future of the United Nations’ presence in Haiti as will be a shift in focus of the international community’s support, away from stabilization to institutional strengthening.