Benin offers 2,000 troops to help Haiti fight armed gangs, US ambassador says

United Nations/Mexico City —Benin has offered 2,000 troops to support a planned Kenyan-led international force to help Haitian national police fight armed gangs, US ambassador to the United Nations (UN)  Linda Thomas-Greenfield told a press conference on February 26 2024.

The UN authorised the mission in October 2023, a year after Haiti’s unelected government requested it. The UN estimates the conflict in the Caribbean nation killed close to 5,000 people in 2023 and has driven some 300,000 from their homes.

Thomas-Greenfield, speaking in Guyana where she travelled to lead the US delegation to the Caribbean Community summit there, said she had learned just before starting the trip that Benin had offered the troops to support the force.

She said some Caribbean countries that had pledged support had called for more Francophone nations to join the effort.

A US statement issued on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro last week had announced “financial, personnel, and in-kind commitments to the mission” from Benin, France and Canada, the latter which later announced C$80.5m ($60m) for the mission.

The US has itself committed $200m and pledged to boost efforts to stem the flow of illicit arms to the Caribbean region. The UN estimates firearms held by Haitian gangs are largely smuggled from the US.

Thomas-Greenfield added that Guyana had also pledged funds to the mission, though she did not give an amount.

Kenya, which has pledged to lead the mission, offered 1,000 police officers, but a local court later barred the move as unconstitutional. President William Ruto has, however, said the plan will go ahead and meetings have since continued.

So far, public offers to support the security force, which is based on voluntary contributions, have come largely from developing nations in Africa and the Caribbean.

Thomas-Greenfield said she had held meetings with Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry and encouraged both him and opposition groups to agree on a path forward, noting that no time frame has been set for the country’s long-awaited elections.

Henry, who came to power after the assassination of the country’s last president in 2021, had pledged to step down by early February 2023, but later said security must first be re-established in order to ensure free and fair elections.

Reuters