UNITED NATIONS, United States (AFP) — The United Nations (UN) Security Council will vote on Tuesday on whether to beef up a UN-backed security mission in gang-dominated Haiti into a full-fledged force with troops.

Currently just 1,000 police officers, mostly from Kenya, are deployed in Haiti under the Multinational Security Mission (MSS) to support the overwhelmed Haitian police in their fight against rampant gang violence.

But the mission, which was approved in 2023, has had deeply mixed results.

“Every day, innocent lives are snuffed out by bullets, fire and fear,” Laurent Saint-Cyr, who heads the Haitian Transitional Presidential Council, told the UN’s signature diplomatic gathering last week.

“Entire neighbourhoods are disappearing, forcing more than a million people into internal exile and reducing to nothing memories, investments, and infrastructure.

“This is the face of Haiti today, a country at war, a contemporary Guernica, a human tragedy on America’s doorstep — just a four-hour flight from here,” he said.

Saint-Cyr has thrown his support behind the United States (US) and Panamanian proposal to evolve the MSS into a more resilient force for an initial period of one year.

The new force could comprise a maximum of 5,500 uniformed personnel, including police officers and military troops, unlike the MSS, which is just law enforcement.

Kenya’s president William Ruto said last week that “with the right personnel, adequate resources, appropriate equipment and necessary logistics, Haiti’s security can be restored.”

The boost would be accompanied by the creation of a support office within the UN, suggested several months ago by Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, to provide the required logistical and financial support.

– ‘Target gangs’ –

US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau said last week: “This mandate would empower the force to proactively target gangs and restore security to Haiti while ensuring it has the appropriate tools to succeed the mission’s anticipated objectives.”

“Unfortunately, adopting this resolution is not a given. Despite the majority support of the Security Council, some might try to prevent its adoption or slow down our response to Haiti,” Landau said.

China had already expressed scepticism about the role of the MSS without political transition in Haiti, but it abstained during the vote, as did Russia.

According to diplomatic sources, it is unclear what positions the two countries, which hold veto power, will take during Tuesday’s vote.

The poorest country in the Americas, Haiti has long suffered at the hands of violent criminal gangs that commit murders, rapes, looting, and kidnappings against a backdrop of chronic political instability.

The situation has worsened significantly since early 2024, when gangs drove then-Prime Minister Ariel Henry to resign.

The country, which has not held elections since 2016, has since been led by a Transitional Presidential Council.