Plans to stabilize Haiti with a foreign mercenary force, and a transitional presidential council imposed from abroad, have been a dismal failure. Perhaps that was the intention, given the “international community’s” role historically in keeping Haiti underdeveloped and immiserated. The vaunted Multilateral Security Support Mission, (MSS), led by Kenya, is suffering from lack of funding, military equipment, and personnel as only 400 Kenyan police officers have arrived to help the Haitian National Police (PNH) combat violent gangs. The MSS mission was supposed to have a total force of 2,500, made up of contingents from 12 nations.
Acting Prime Minister Gary Conille, a former regional director of UNICEF, made very strong statements at an Aug. 8 meeting of the International Coordination Group for Security Assistance in Haiti, and subsequently in an interview with BBC’s “Hard Talk” program, where he questioned whether presidential elections in 2025 and the swearing in of a new President in February 2026, are even possible, given the out-of-control security situation and the failure of the international community to support the MSS. Conille is planning on making an appeal at the UN General Assembly in September to nations that had promised funding but have contributed nothing as yet. The size of a UN trust fund to which nations can contribute to MSS remains unchanged at $21 million.
