US pledges $100 million to back proposed Kenyan-led multinational force to Haiti
The Biden administration pledged $100 million on Friday to support a proposed Kenyanled multinational force to restore security to conflictravaged Haiti and urged other nations to make similar contributions.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced that the U.S. would provide logistics, including intelligence, airlift, communications and medical support to the mission, which still needs to be approved by the U.N. Security Council. Other than Kenya, which would head the operation, Jamaica, the Bahamas, and Antigua and Barbuda have pledged to deploy personnel.
Blinken urged the international community to pledge additional personnel as well as equipment, logistics, training and funding for the effort to be successful.
“The people of Haiti cannot wait much longer,” he told foreign minister colleagues from more than 20 countries that have expressed support for the mission.
Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry echoed Blinken's urgency, telling the U.N. General Assembly on Friday that police and military personnel are needed, and that the use of force “remains essential to create an environment in which the state can function again.”
He noted that crimes committed by gangs include “kidnapping, pillaging, fires, the recent massacres, sexual and sexist violence, organ trafficking, human trafficking, homicides, extrajudicial executions, the recruitment of child soldiers (and) the blocking of main roads.”
“Democracy is at peril. Our country needs a return to normalcy,” Henry said.
Blinken said it was imperative for the Security Council to authorize the mission to Haiti as quickly as possible so the force could be operational in the next several months. He stressed, however, that international assistance could be only one part of Haiti's recovery from years of corruption, lawlessness, gang violence and political chaos.
“Improved security must be accompanied by real progress to resolve the political crisis,” he said. “The support mission will not be a substitute for political progress.”
In his speech, Haiti's prime minister pledged to hold elections “as soon as practically possible.” He said that, in the coming days, he would take the steps necessary for electoral consensus with support from the international community and keep speaking with all political actors and civil society leaders.
Blinken also hosted a closed-door meeting Friday to talk about Haiti, the needs for the proposed Kenyan mission and the outcome of a trip to Haiti that top Kenyan officials made in August. More than 30 countries attended the meeting, and at least 11 of them made concrete commitments of support, according to a U.S. senior official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the deliberations.