UNITED NATIONS (CMC) – Haiti’s Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé says the French-speaking Caribbean country is at a “watershed moment” in its struggle against gang violence. He has called for sustained international support alongside stronger national security institutions.

In addressing world leaders on Friday during the 81st Session of the United Nations Debate, Fils-Aimé said criminal violence was threatening communities across the country, but insisted Haiti was neither defeated nor seeking to have others determine its future.

“Haiti will resist. Haiti is standing tall,” he said, urging the international community “not to save it, but to stand side by side with it, while it takes its own destiny into its own hands.”

The prime minister said the scale of violence, including massacres, displacement and attacks against women and children, demand decisive action. He paid tribute to victims, as well as Haitian and international security personnel, who have died serving the country, stressing that the human toll must not become simply another statistic.

Fils-Aimé said Haiti is strengthening its own security forces, including through a programme to train 4,000 police officers. He shared that more than 2,000 have already been trained, while over 1,500 new soldiers have completed training. Fils-Aimé said the government also plans to train 15,000 additional soldiers over the next three years.

“Our goal is not only to respond to the crisis of today,” he said, but to build the capacity for Haiti to sustainably ensure its own security.

At the same time, Fils-Aimé expressed concern that the international force intended to support those efforts was still not fully operational or at its planned strength of 5,500 personnel. He called for renewal of the mandate of the “gang suppression force” and its full deployment with the personnel, equipment and resources required.

“A mandate is not enough,” he warned. “There’s a need for forces. Equipment is needed, and one needs to resolve to see the effort through.”

The prime minister also urged stronger international action against illicit weapons and ammunition trafficking, noting that the guns fueling violence in Haiti are arriving through transnational criminal networks.

As part of efforts to combat impunity, Fils-Aimé said the government has established two specialised judicial hubs addressing financial and mass crimes and sexual violence, while reactivating the national commission for disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration.

At the same time, he said restoring security must go hand in hand with economic recovery and a return to democratic government through “free, credible, inclusive and honest elections”.

Those elections are scheduled for December but, in the meantime, the UN has said that armed gangs continue to “perpetrate widespread violence in the Caribbean state, where they regularly murder, rape and kidnap civilians.”

It said gangs control large parts of the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince, and key transport corridors, hampering the transport of essential services and humanitarian assistance. The UN said around 6.4 million people require humanitarian assistance in the French-speaking Caribbean country and that almost 1.5 million have been displaced.