UN Security Council extends Haiti anti-gang force by 6 months

The United Nations Security Council on Tuesday approved a six-month extension of the mandate for a gang suppression force deployed to combat violent criminal syndicates ravaging Haiti.

A wide view of the Security Council meeting on the situation in Haiti. Photo: Eskinder Debebe/UN

First authorized by the Security Council last year, the Gang Suppression Force (GSF) had been expected to ramp up between April and October to 5,500 personnel and 50 civilian staff, although it remains short of that goal.

Haiti has been overwhelmed by deadly gang violence in recent years, with swaths of the Caribbean country controlled by heavily armed groups that local authorities have been powerless to subdue.

The Council voted 12-0 in favor, with three abstentions, to extend the force until March 31, 2027.

"The entire effort... is designed around the ultimate objective that Haitians themselves take back control of their own security and their own future, and this cannot and will not become an endless mission," said US Ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz. The US co-sponsored the resolution.

Source: Citizen Digital