The US government Tuesday November 19 issued an advisory to its citizens against travelling to Haiti, where gangs have stepped up warfare.
This came even as Russia and China on Wednesday opposed a U.S.-led campaign to transform the force in Haiti helping police to tackle escalating gang violence into a U.N. peacekeeping mission.
This is a setback for Kenya that had been hopping to be moved to the U.N. where terms are better.
The two allies called a U.N. Security Council meeting as gangs have intensified attacks, shooting at four aircraft which has shut the airport in the capital Port-au-Prince, and attacking its upscale neighborhood Petionvilleon Tuesday.
The US Embassy in Haiti said in an advisory:
Incidents of armed violence and disruptions to ports and airports are widespread in Port-au-Prince.
“Barricades have been put up in many neighborhoods and normal traffic patterns are disrupted. The suspension of operations at Port-au-Prince international airport has been extended through November 25.”
“The area around the airport remains unstable and outbreaks of violence near the airport could occur,” the advisory said in part.
The advisory added due to the continued violence throughout the city and near the U.S. Embassy, embassy operations are limited until further notice.
“All appointments for visas and American Citizen Services are canceled. U.S. citizens who need emergency services should email: acspap@state.gov; you must include your U.S. passport number and a description of the service you require.”
It told the US citizens to be aware that at this time traveling to the airport in Port-au-Prince is not safe and the commercial airlines may not have agents at the airport to assist you until regular commercial travel starts back up.
“The security situation in Haiti is unpredictable and dangerous. Travel within Haiti is conducted at your own risk. The U.S. government cannot guarantee your safety traveling to airports, borders, or during any onward travel. You should consider your personal security situation before traveling anywhere in Haiti. Only attempt to depart Haiti or travel within Haiti if you believe it is safe for you to do so.”
This comes the Kenyan police-led Multinational Security Support Mission (MSSM) says they are focused on their mission despite attempts by gangs to attack homes in parts of Port-au-Prince.
The MSS said Tuesday November 19 in a statement they to restore stability and provide crucial support to the Haitian government amidst the current political and security situations.
“This mission remains committed to its key mandates by ensuring that it offers support to the Haitian National Police (HNP),” the statement said. Unlike previous interventions in Haiti, this mission has a focused approach on security reinforcement and capacity building rather than direct governance, MSSM said.
MSSM explained their primary goal is to tackle the pervasive gang violence that has engulfed Port-au-Prince and other key regions.
“The MSS works in support of the Haitian National Police (HNP) to dismantle criminal networks and re-establish secure zones for civilians.”
The capacity building of Haitian National Police is also at the core of the MSSM and this includes training and logistical support for the HNP, which has struggled with limited resources and personnel in its attempts to combat the escalating violence.
“Enhanced training, strategic advisory, and improved equipment are expected to boost HNP’s effectiveness in law enforcement,” the statement said.
Russia and China on Wednesday opposed a U.S.-led campaign to transform the force in Haiti helping police to tackle escalating gang violence into a U.N. peacekeeping mission.
This is a setback for Kenya that had been hopping to be moved to the U.N. where terms are better.
The two allies called a U.N. Security Council meeting as gangs have intensified attacks, shooting at four aircraft which has shut the airport in the capital Port-au-Prince, and attacking its upscale neighborhood Petionvilleon Tuesday.
The U.N. estimates the gangs control 85 percent of the capital and have spread into surrounding areas.
The United States proposed a U.N. peacekeeping mission in early September as one way to secure regular financing for the U.N.-backed multinational force, which faces a serious funding crisis.
The U.S. tried to get the 15-member U.N. Security Council to sign off on a draft resolution last week to start the transformation.
But Russia and China refused to discuss the resolution and instead called for Wednesday’s council meeting where they made their opposition clear.
China’s Deputy U.N. Ambassador Geng Shuang said the council extended the mandate of the multinational force only a month ago, and discussing its transformation to a peacekeeping operation now “will only interfere” and make it harder to tackle its funding shortfall and get all the police pledged to Haiti. Peacekeepers should only be deployed when there is peace to keep, and there is no peace in Haiti, Geng stressed.
“Deploying a peacekeeping operation at this time is nothing more than putting peacekeepers into the front line of the battles with gangs.”
The multinational force was supposed to have 2,500 international police but the head of the U.N.’s political mission in Haiti, Maria Isabel Salvador, told the council late last month that only around 430 are deployed — some 400 from Kenya and the rest from the Bahamas, Belize and Jamaica.
She said the U.N. trust fund that finances the multinational force and relies on voluntary contributions, “remains critically under-resourced.”
By last week, the trust fund had received $85.3 million of the $96.8 million pledged. The U.S. agreed to contribute $300 million to the force, but that total is still far below the $600 million cost to deploy a 2,500-strong force for a year.
Russia’s Deputy U.N. Ambassador Dmitry Polyansky, expressing “shock and horror” at what’s happening on the streets of Port-au-Prince, accused the U.S. and other countries that initially supported the multinational force of failing to fund it.
“Conditions on the ground in Haiti are not appropriate for U.N. peacekeepers,” he said. “Their role is to maintain peace and not to fight crime in urban areas or to save a dysfunctional state that has been plunged into domestic conflict.”
Whatever the future international presence in Haiti, Polyansky said Haitians need urgent assistance immediately which means providing the multinational force with the necessary materiel, funding and technical expertise. “Otherwise, quite simply, there will be just nobody left to host an
Haiti’s leaders have asked for a U.N. peacekeeping force, and the permanent council of the Organization of American States adopted a resolution on Nov. 13 entitled “In Support of Haiti’s Request for a United States Peacekeeping Operation.”
At the council meeting, there was also strong support for the transformation.
National security adviser to president Ruto Monica Juma told the council that joint operations by the multinational force and the Haitian police have secured critical infrastructure including the police academy, national palace, national hospital and port.
But it’s evident the multinational force urgently needs “a surge,” she said, and Kenya looks forward to additional deployments in the shortest possible time along with contributions of equipment and logistical support.
At the same time, Juma said, Kenya “strongly supports” the Haitian government’s appeal to the Security Council to authorize planning for the transformation of the multinational force to a U.N. peacekeeping force.
U.S. deputy ambassador Dorothy Shea told the council that with Haitian, regional and Kenyan support, “it is time for the Security Council to act to take the initial steps to realize Haiti’s request to help reestablish security for the people of Haiti.”
Transitioning to a U.N. peacekeeping mission, she said, would facilitate the multinational force and the countries supporting it “to take advantage of existing U.N. financial, personnel, and logistical support structures as well as predictable and sustainable financing.”
The most poignant appeal for a peacekeeping force came from Haitian Dr. Bill Pape, who left Port-au-Prince about two weeks ago where he works to combat infectious and chronic diseases. He is also a professor at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York.
Pape said he came with a message to the Security Council: The Haitian police and multinational force “are outgunned and outnumbered.”
He said he recognized the controversies of previous peacekeeping missions in Haiti. The most recent, from 2004-2017, was marred by allegations of sexual assault and the introduction of cholera, which killed nearly 10,000 people.
But Pape stressed that during previous foreign interventions, which date to the early 1900s, “insecurity did not exist at this scale.”
“I trust that seeking your support to restore security in my country is not asking too much,” he told council members. “It is a difficult task for any Haitian to request foreign troops on our soil. But there is no alternative.”
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