UN mulls Haiti peacekeeping force as gangs ramp up warfare

By Sarah Morland

(Reuters) -Diplomats at the United Nations Security Council on Wednesday voiced broad support for converting a security mission helping Haitian police fight escalating gang warfare into a formal U.N. peacekeeping mission, though Russia and China remained opposed.

Haiti's security crisis dramatically escalated this month as gangs shot at commercial planes, flights into the country were halted, the prime minister was replaced, and armed gangs attacked parts of the capital previously spared the worst the violence.

Leaders of the Caribbean nation have repeatedly requested that a long-delayed and under-resourced Multinational Security Support (MSS) mission that partially deployed in June be converted into a peacekeeping mission to shore up funding.

The proposal was circulated in a draft resolution by the United States and Ecuador in early September, but dropped from a final resolution renewing the MSS mandate amid opposition from Russia and China - both veto powers.

While all other representatives at the meeting voiced support or openness to converting the MSS - a lengthy process that would require a report of recommendations from Secretary-General Antonio Guterres - Russia and China remained opposed.

They argued Haiti needed more established peace to justify sending a peacekeeping mission and that Haiti's government's request was not valid as its leadership was not elected and marred by continuous infighting.

Russia and China suggested instead concentrating resources on fulfilling pledges made to the existing MSS.

"The MSS present in Haiti, although infused with goodwill, is experiencing huge challenges," said Haiti's U.N. Ambassador Antonio Rodrigue. "The financial, human, and logistical resources are currently completely insufficient to respond to the scale of the threat."

The current mission, approved in October 2023 a year after Haiti first requested it, has currently deployed some 400 mostly Kenyan troops - a fraction of more than 3,100 troops pledged by a handful of countries. It counts less than $100 million in its dedicated fund.

Rodrigue added that a new peacekeeping mission should learn from the mistakes of past interventions in Haiti, which became notorious for human rights abuses and sparking a deadly cholera epidemic.

Jean "Bill" Pape, a top Haitian infectious disease expert whose son was kidnapped last year, told the council of increasing resignations at his health organization, with more than two-thirds of his employees forced to flee their homes.

"It is a difficult task for any Haitian to request foreign troops on our own soil," he said. "But if nothing is done, the alternative will be a massive genocide that has started already, something only you have the power to prevent."

(Reporting by Sarah Morland; Editing by Brendan O'Boyle and Lincoln Feast.)