UN extends mandate of Gang Suppression Force in Haiti for six months

Security force members deployed to Haiti have struggled to make progress against criminal groups as violence continues.

The United Nations Security Council has voted to extend the mandate of an international security task force deployed to Haiti to address escalating violence from gangs and other criminal groups.

The council voted on Tuesday to extend the Gang Suppression Force (GSF) until March 31, 2027.

Recommended Stories

• list 1 of 3Haitian government calls for renewal of international anti-gang task force
• list 2 of 3Haiti police confront public frustration after deadly gang attack kills 47
• list 3 of 3Eighteen suspects extradited to US over Haitian president’s 2021 killing

China, Russia and Pakistan abstained from the vote, citing concerns over the measure’s effectiveness. Gang violence has remained stubbornly high in Haiti, with much of the capital, Port-au-Prince, under the control of organised criminal networks.

Still, proponents of the task force highlighted its expanded mandate. Whereas a previous effort was focused primarily on supporting Haitian police, the GSF has the ability to coordinate with Haiti’s military or act independently.

“Seven missions have been dedicated to Haiti over the previous decades, and obviously to limited success,” said Mike Waltz, the United States ambassador to the UN who co-sponsored the resolution. “We’re trying to do something genuinely different.”

Waltz said that about 1,500 GSF troops are currently operating in Haiti, with the remaining 4,000 expected to arrive in the coming months.

But the GSF has struggled to cope with obstacles that have plagued similar efforts in the past, including personnel shortfalls and questions about funding.

Critics have also expressed reservations about international intervention, given a history of abuses in Haiti resulting from foreign involvement.

The current task force is operating at about 30 percent of its intended size. It follows a Kenyan-led police deployment, known as the Multinational Security Support Mission, that was authorised to support Haiti’s National Police.

After staffing and funding shortfalls, the mission concluded in April, with resources transitioning to the GSF.

Haiti’s government first asked the international community to send security forces in 2022 and has insisted that further help is necessary if the country is to hold nationwide elections.

It has been almost a decade since Haiti held national elections, with the last democratically elected senators seeing their terms expire in 2023.

A transitional presidential council was formed in 2024, only to see its mandate end before elections could be held. National elections have been repeatedly delayed, with the next round tentatively set for December.

Criminal groups have become more powerful in Haiti following the assassination of President Jovenel Moise in 2021, which created a leadership vacuum in the country.

Experts say gangs have taken advantage of the instability and legitimacy crisis in the government to expand their reach across the country.

That growth has also set off a wave of violence, with more than 1.5 million people displaced from their homes. Between April and June alone, the UN documented 1,408 killings, as well as more than 650 injuries related to gang violence.

Tuesday’s vote occurred one day after criminal groups killed at least 11 people and burned homes and buildings in the Artibonite region, in what a mayor said was an act of retaliation following the killing of three gang members by GSF forces.