Kenya and Haiti urge partners to boost support for peacekeeping mission amid a funding shortfall
Associated PressOct 05, 2024
At a meeting of the UN Security Council arranged on Wednesday at their request, China and Russia expressed their opposition to transforming the Multinational Security Support (MSS) mission in Haiti into a UN peacekeeping mission.
Representatives for both countries alleged that conditions on the ground would expose peacekeepers to great security risks, with China's Geng Shuang calling for the council to focus on enabling the MSS to fulfill its recently renewed mandate.
This comes as Ecuador and the US put a revised draft resolution to convert the mission under Kenya's leadership to a blue helmet operation under silence procedure last week, following an official request by Haiti's transitional government.
It's hard to understand the reasoning leading China and Russia to oppose an official UN peacekeeping mission in Haiti. As the understaffed and underfunded MSS has failed to address gang violence in Haiti, this transition has become the only hope for the Caribbean country.
Though a new UN peacekeeping operation would secure enough funding and troops for the mission in Haiti, this move is by no means a silver bullet in the fight against gangs — and it could prove deleterious to such an effort. Given the situation on the ground and past experiences in the country, deploying blue helmets to Haiti would be a mistake.