Kenyan President William Ruto, on a visit to Haiti, said this weekend that he was open to Kenya's anti-gang mission in the country being converted to a full UN peacekeeping operation.
Ruto visited Haiti to assess the progress of the Multinational Security Support (MSS) mission, where Kenya is playing a leading role to curb rampant gang violence that has ushered years of political chaos and mass displacement.
"On the suggestion to transit this into a fully UN Peacekeeping mission, we have absolutely no problem with it, if that is the direction the UN security council wants to take," Ruto said on Saturday in the capital, Port-au-Prince.
"There are many people who thought Haiti was mission impossible, but today they have changed their minds because of the progress you have made," he added.
Kenya has also pledged to send 600 more police officers to Haiti in the coming weeks, as expected.
Ruto stopped in Haiti while en route to the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
He met with the president of the Transitional Presidential Council, Edgard Leblanc Fils and visited the Kenyan base in Clercine, where he greeted the Kenyan police officers on duty, according to RFI's correspondent in Haiti.
The 21 September visit marked 100 days of deployment of Kenyan police in Haiti, but concrete results are still to be seen.
African-led mission
The mandate of the MSS mission was first approved by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) last year, for 12 months, and will expire at the start of October.
Kenya-led mission to Haiti faces scrutiny as UN mandate deadline looms
On Friday, the United Nations' expert on human rights in Haiti said that the situation has worsened, with now about 700,000 people internally displaced.
Kenya sent about 400 police officers to Port-au-Prince in June and July from an expected total of 1,000, after the Security Council approved the MSS mission.
A handful of other countries have together pledged at least 1,900 more troops, including Benin.
UN launches emergency appeal for Haiti as Benin mulls joining multinational security mission
Earlier this month, the UNSC began considering a draft resolution to extend the MSS mandate and ask the UN to plan for it to become a formal peacekeeping mission.
The 15-member council is due to vote on 30 September on the mandate renewal.
Mixed results
More than 578,000 Haitians have been internally displaced by the gang violence, according to data from the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
The efficacy of the MSS mission has been criticised however, amid delays in deployments of manpower and vital equipment needed to fight powerful gangs.
The idea of a UN peacekeeping force, first floated by the US, is also controversial in Haiti given the introduction of cholera by UN troops and several sexual abuse cases the the last time they were in Haiti.
Ruto’s positive perception of the mission was contradicted by a United Nations security expert, William O’Neill.
Just days earlier, he warned that Haiti’s National Police still lack the “logistical and technical capacity” to fight gangs.
The security mission is expected to reach a total of 2,500 personnel, with the Bahamas, Bangladesh, Barbados, Benin and Chad also pledging to send police and soldiers, although there isn't a clear calendar for now.
(with newswires)
