Kenya supports turning Haiti mission into formal UN peacekeeping operation

RFI

23 September 2024 at 8:18 am·2-min read

Kenyan President William Ruto, on a visit to Haiti, said this weekend that he was open to Kenya's anti-gang mission in the country being converted to a full UN peacekeeping operation.

Ruto visited Haiti to assess the progress of the Multinational Security Support (MSS) mission, where Kenya is playing a leading role to curb rampant gang violence that has ushered years of political chaos and mass displacement.

"On the suggestion to transit this into a fully UN Peacekeeping mission, we have absolutely no problem with it, if that is the direction the UN security council wants to take," Ruto said on Saturday in the capital, Port-au-Prince.

"There are many people who thought Haiti was mission impossible, but today they have changed their minds because of the progress you have made," he added.

Kenya has also pledged to send 600 more police officers to Haiti in the coming weeks, as expected.

Ruto stopped in Haiti while en route to the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

He met with the president of the Transitional Presidential Council, Edgard Leblanc Fils and visited the Kenyan base in Clercine, where he greeted the Kenyan police officers on duty, according to RFI's correspondent in Haiti.

The 21 September visit marked 100 days of deployment of Kenyan police in Haiti, but concrete results are still to be seen.

African-led mission

The mandate of the MSS mission was first approved by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) last year, for 12 months, and will expire at the start of October.

(with newswires)

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African-led mission

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