Kenya, Haiti ask for peacekeeping mission support amid funding shortfall

The leaders of Kenya and Haiti have urged international partners to honour their commitment to the UN-backed peacekeeping mission in Haiti, saying the mission needs more resources and that its budget will run out in March 2025.

Kenya, which leads the mission to quell gang violence in the Caribbean nation, has sent nearly 400 officers. They are joined by nearly two dozen police officers and soldiers from Jamaica, but the numbers fall significantly short of the 2,500 pledged by various countries, including Chad, Benin, Bangladesh and Barbados, for the mission.

Kenyan President William Ruto, who met with Haiti Prime Minister Garry Conille in Nairobi on Friday, said Kenya would deploy 600 additional officers next month.

The UN has $85 million in pledges for the mission, of which $68 million has been received.

"We have a window of success that is evident from the operations that have been carried out already," Ruto said.

Conille asked international partners to send the officers they'd pledged to ensure the "contingent from Kenya has the resources they need".

Conille said his regular meetings with the Kenyan commander were filled with words of encouragement that the fight against Haiti's gangs "is winnable".

The gangs in Haiti have grown in power since the July 7, 2021 assassination of president Jovenel Moise and are now estimated to control up to 80 percent of the capital. The surge in killings, rapes and kidnappings has led to a violent uprising by civilian vigilante groups.

A UN Security Council voted unanimously in early October to extend the mandate of the Kenya-led multinational force, after brushing off a call from Haiti to start talks on transforming it into a UN peacekeeping mission.