U.N. extends political mission in Haiti, but it will be for less than a year

Miami Herald

a day ago

The United Nations Security Council on Monday extended the mandate of its political mission in Haiti, agreeing that the office remains critical in supporting progress on the security and political front in the crisis-wracked country.
But unlike in the past when the U.N. Integrated Office in Haiti has received 12-month extensions, Monday's unanimous decision by council members backed only six-and-a-half months. The resolution extending the mission's new mandate until Jan. 31, 2026, was written by the United States and Panama.
The resolution's language reaffirms support for sanctions against those fueling the country's gang crisis, while reaffirming U.N. member nations' commitment to supporting 'Haitian-owned and Haitian-led solution' to dealing with the causes of the crises. Members also expressed their intentions, 'without delay,' to consider recommendations made by Secretary-General António Guterres to help reduce gangs' territorial control.
In February, Guterres nixed deploying blue-helmet peacekeepers to Haiti, saying there is no peace to keep, and instead offered to bolster the current Kenya-led Multinational Security Support mission with funds from the U.N. peacekeeping budget.
Five months after presenting the council with a plan, including establishing a U.N. support office to provide logistical and operational support to the mission and bolstering intelligence capabilities, Guterres has yet to receive guidance from the council, whose members on Monday acknowledged the worsening situation in Haiti.
'The technical extension of this mandate should not make us forget the urgent need for council action to bolster support for security in Haiti,' France's permanent representative, Jérôme Bonnafont, said. The ongoing efforts by the Kenya-led mission, he added, 'must be accompanied by a clear framework' provided by the U.N.
'The U.N. must bring strategic and operational expertise to the fore, as well as crucial logistic support. Almost five months after the Secretary General having issued these recommendations, there is an urgent need to deal with the humanitarian and security situation,' Bonnafont said.
The U.N. mission's short mandate reflects several realities facing the global agency and Haiti, where the worsening gang violence is driving hunger and displacements and is also making it increasingly difficult for U.N. staff to operate.
Forced to work in a more hostile environment than.when it was first established in 2019, the mission faces limited options for evacuations due to the ongoing suspension of international commercial flights, and mobility, because of gangs' ongoing gang encirclement of Port-au-Prince. The mission, which was headed by María Isabel Salvador before she was replaced this month by Carlos G. Ruiz Massieu of Mexico, is down to a skeleton team of 17 staffers who work from home most days.
Ahead of a meeting earlier this month, Guterres informed the security council that the U.N. political mission is undergoing a review with the objective of becoming smaller and more focused. The overhaul comes as the U.N. itself, faces a major financial crisis fueled in large part by U.S. foreign aid cuts under President Donald Trump. The United States, the largest donor to the U.N., is in arrears on its payments to peacekeeping. Trump, having already gutted some humanitarian assistance, is proposing that Congress rescind billions in additional U.N. funding.
The moves, if they go through, are bound to have a detrimental effect on Haiti, where efforts to provide a robust response to the gang violence continue to lack clarity.
Panama's permanent representative to the security council, Eloy Alfaro de Alba, said the agency's continued foot dragging on providing solutions was not only 'an exercise of protracted procrastination,' but 'is like the chronicle of a death foretold written by the much hailed Colombian author Gabriel García Márquez.
'We should take action now. The Haitian people cannot and should not wait any longer,' he said, warning that waiting until September when the Kenya force's mandate comes up for renewal 'will be too late.'
The ill-equipped and under-resourced mission, though authorized by the Security Council, is not a formal U.N. peacekeeping operation and has had to rely on voluntary funds. Most of that money has came from the United States, which under the Biden administration gave more than $629 million. The Trump administration has said it can't continue the same level of financial support.
Monday's meeting took place a day before the mandate of the U.N.'s Haiti office is set to expire on Tuesday, and as Haitian Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé visited Washington, where he met with Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau.
The State Department said the two men discussed ongoing efforts to restore security and political stability.
'Landau reiterated that Haiti's security crisis poses a threat to our regional and national security,' the statement said. 'Both officials emphasized the importance of restoring constitutional order and reinforcing the capacity of Haiti's democratic institutions. The Deputy expressed the United States' support for the Multinational Security Support mission, but emphasized the need for greater burden-sharing.'
In recent months, Fils-Aimé has turned to foreign contractors and explosive drones to help in the fight against criminal gangs, most notably a company connected to Erik Prince, the former head of Blackwater, the private U.S. military contractor.
The Trump administration is currently working on a new Haiti policy. However, Dorothy Shea, the U.S.'s acting chargé d'affaires at the U.N., provided no hint as to the direction the administration wants to take. She said the U.S. continues to work closely with those invested in Haiti security and. emphasized the administration's call for other donors to 'step up and contribute' more.
'We remain seized with the security crisis in Haiti, especially the abhorrent gang violence and rampant corruption,' she said.