UN Security Council considers peacekeeping plan to replace Kenya-led Haiti mission

The circulation of the short resolution to all 15 council members follows U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s visit to Haiti on Thursday.

The United States and Ecuador circulated a draft resolution on Friday asking the United Nations to begin planning for a U.N. peacekeeping operation to replace the Kenya-led mission now in the Caribbean nation of Haiti, helping police to quell gang violence.

The proposed Security Council resolution, obtained by The Associated Press, says U.N. peacekeepers are needed “in order to sustain the gains” made by the U.N.-backed multinational mission which has seen almost 400 Kenyan police deploy since June to help the Haitian National Police.

The circulation of the short resolution to all 15 council members follows U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s visit to Haiti on Thursday where he reaffirmed the U.S. government’s commitment to the multinational mission and pushed for long-awaited general elections.

America’s top diplomat also said a U.N. peacekeeping force was an option to address a funding crisis for the Kenya-led mission, which depends on voluntary contributions. The U.S. and Canada have provided the bulk of funds so far. Peacekeeping operations, by contrast, are funded from a special U.N. budget.

The United Nations has been involved in Haiti on and off since 1990.

A 2004 rebellion had the country on the brink of collapse, leading to deployment of a U.N. force. It helped stabilize the impoverished nation after successful elections and a devastating 2010 earthquake that killed as many as 300,000 people and ended in October 2017.

But U.N. peacekeepers left under a cloud, with troops from Nepal widely blamed for introducing cholera that has killed about 10,000 people in Haiti since 2010 and other troops implicated in sexual abuse, including rape and the targeting hungry children.

Since 2017, the U.N. has had a series of small missions in Haiti. The latest, political mission, BINUH, has a mandate to advance a Haitian-led political process toward elections, the rule of law and human rights.