(Washington) Washington on Saturday called on the international community to support the UN-backed mission in Haiti to try to stem gang violence there, a mission that has been in doubt since a court in Nairobi blocked a Kenyan decision aimed at send a thousand police officers there.
“The United States’ commitment to the Haitian people remains unwavering,” US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a statement.
“We reaffirm our support for ongoing international efforts to deploy a multinational security support mission to Haiti […] and renew our calls to the international community to urgently provide support for this mission,” he added.
Gang violence in Haiti has left nearly 5,000 dead, including more than 2,700 civilians, in 2023, according to a report Tuesday from UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
Faced with increasingly pressing calls from the government of the Caribbean state and the UN, Kenya agreed to lead this multinational force, hoped for “during the first quarter of 2024”, according to the UN deputy special representative. in Haiti.
The UN gave the green light in October to this force, also supported by the United States.
Nairobi had declared its readiness to send up to 1,000 police officers to Haiti in this context, but on Friday, the Nairobi High Court blocked this government decision, deeming it “unconstitutional, illegal and invalid”.
The Kenyan government announced that it would “immediately challenge” the court’s verdict.
“There is an urgent need for the international community to respond to the unprecedented levels of violence from gangs and destabilizing forces targeting the Haitian people,” Miller said.
The assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in 2021 plunged Haiti further into chaos, after the country was already plagued by gang violence. The latter now control 80% of the capital Port-au-Prince, and the number of serious crimes has reached records, according to the UN representative in the country.