US seeks UN authorization for new ‘Gang Suppression Force’ to tackle escalating violence in Haiti

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United States announced Thursday that it is seeking U.N. authorization for a new “Gang Suppression Force” to help tackle the escalating violence in Haiti, where armed groups are expanding their brutal activities from the capital into the countryside.

Acting U.S. Ambassador Dorothy Shea made the announcement at a U.N. Security Council meeting, but it was unclear how it would differ from the Kenya-led Multinational Security Support force now deployed in the violence-torn Caribbean nation trying to help police curb gang violence.

Shea thanked Kenya for answering Haiti’s call “at a critical moment” and leading a multinational force for more than a year, saying without it “the gangs would have been even more emboldened in their ambitions and brazen atrocities against civilians in Haiti.”

She said the U.S. and Panama will be circulating a draft resolution to the Security Council to establish the Gang Suppression Force and create a U.N. Support Office to provide logistical support to it.

In February, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres proposed opening an office that would provide drones, fuel, ground and air transportation and other non-lethal support to the Kenya-led mission.

Shea gave no indication of whether the United States would provide any military or police support to the new Gang Suppression Force, or whether Kenya and the other contributing countries – the Bahamas, El Salvador, Belize, Guatemala and Jamaica – would remain part of it.

One council diplomat said it had been informed that the Kenya-led force would be renamed and transformed into the Gang Suppression Force with a significant increase in size and U.N. logistical support. The diplomat was not authorized to speak publicly because discussions were private.

The first Kenyans arrived in Haiti in June 2024 and the force was supposed to have 2,500 troops but its current strength is below 1,000.

Shea urged Security Council members to support the “new path towards peace and security.” And she urged the international community “to come to the table and join the United States, Panama and others who have demonstrated their commitment to Haiti’s security, in meaningful burden sharing to help promote stability in Haiti.”

Seven countries, including the United States, informed Guterres in a letter Wednesday that they were taking action on another of his February recommendations – to form a “Standing Group of Partners” to provide “high-level strategic direction, oversight, and political decision-making for any revamped security force.”

The group — which also includes Canada, El Salvador, Guatemala, Jamaica, Bahamas and Kenya — said it will work to secure voluntary financial contributions for costs not covered by the U.N. Support Office, to facilitate an increase in force numbers, and to provide coordination for a revamped force including putting a special representative in Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince.

Guterres addressed the Security Council before Shea spoke welcoming efforts by unnamed council members to advance his February proposals to strengthen the multinational mission with U.N. logistical and operational support.

He urged the council “to act without delay and authorize an international force, supported by the United Nations through logistical and operational backing, and predictable financing.”

The U.N. chief warned the council that Haitians “are in a perfect storm of suffering,” pointing to crumbling state authority, gang violence spreading beyond the capital forcing families to flee, and hospitals and schools coming under repeated attack.

“The humanitarian toll is staggering: 1.3 million people – half of them children – have fled their homes,” Guterres said. “Six million people need humanitarian assistance.”

Yet, he said, the U.N. appeal for $908 million to help 3.9 million people this year is less than 10% funded, “making Haiti the least funded humanitarian appeal in the world.”

Guterres called it “a life-and-death emergency,” warning that 1.7 million Haitians risk receiving no assistance at all unless donors act now.