September 30, 2024 – The United Nations (UN)Security Council has extended the mandate of the Multinational police mission to Haiti for another year, as the Caribbean nation struggles to stem a surge in gang violence and instability.

The resolution, adopted unanimously on Monday, expressed “deep concern about the situation in Haiti including violence, criminal activities and mass displacement.” It extended the Kenyan-led policing mission, which is seeking to assist the Haitian National Police in taking back control of areas under gang control, until October 2, 2025.

The vote comes just days after the UN reported that at least 3,661 people had been killed in Haiti in the first half of 2024 amid the “senseless” gang violence that has engulfed the country.

Haitian leaders warned last week that they are “nowhere near winning” the battle against the armed groups, which for months have been carrying out attacks and Kidnappings across the capital of Port-au-Prince and in other parts of the country.

The violence has displaced more than 700,000 Haitians, according to UN figures.

“There is a sense of urgency because the Haitian people are watching with cautious optimism, they’re really hoping to see clear results,” Haiti’s interim Prime Minister Garry Comille said an event in New York on Wednesday.

Haiti has reeled from years of violence as armed groups – often with ties to the country’s political and business leaders and armed with weapons smuggled from the United States – have vied for influence and control of territory.

But the situation worsened dramatically at the end of February, when the gangs launched attacks on prisons and other state institutions across Port-au-Prince. The surge in violence prompted the resignation of Haiti’s unelected prime minister, the creation of the transitional presidential council, and the deployment of the UN-backed, multinational police deployment led by Kenya.

Yet funding for the police mission – formally known as the Multinational Security Support Mission (MSS) – has lagged, and a UN expert said this month that the force remains under-resourced.

While about ten (10) countries pledged more than 3,100 troops to the multinational force, only about 400 officers have deployed to Haiti. Some experts also have questioned whether the police mission can succeed without a clear plan and oversight.

Jake Johnston, an analyst and researcher on Haiti at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, said on Monday that “two years after the force was proposed, there is still no actual strategy for peace in Haiti.”

Garfield Ekon

Staff Writer

Haiti, September 30, 2024 – The interim Government in the Caribbean Island of Haiti has taken a key step towards holding long-delayed elections with the creation of a body which will oversee the polls.

The nine-member provisional electoral council – set up on Wednesday September 18- has been tasked with organising elections by February 2026.

The last time Haitians voted someone into power was in 2016. Since then, armed gangs have seized control of almost the entire capital, Port-au-Prince, as well as large swathes of rural areas of Haiti.

So far, seven members of the provisional electoral council (CEP) have been named.

Among them are representatives of the media, academia, trade unions, and religious groups.

The creation of the CEP comes less than two weeks after a visit to Port-au-Prince by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who had urged Haiti’s provisional government to move forward with the electoral process.

Blinken said setting up an electoral council was a “critical next step”.

Presidential elections were last held in Haiti in 2016, when Jovenel Moïse of the Tèt Kale party was elected for a five-year term. Since Moïse’s murder by Colombian mercenaries in July 2021, the post of president has been vacant.

In the following years, Haiti was governed by Ariel Henry, the man whom President Moïse had nominated as his prime minister shortly before he was killed. But when Henry left for a summit in Guyana on February 25, 2024, gangs seized the international airport in Port-au-Prince and prevented him from returning.

Henry resigned in April and a transitional presidential council (TPC) was created to lead the country until elections can be held. The TPC named Garry Conille as interim prime minister, to serve until a democratically elected government takes over.

A Kenyan-led multinational security force was also dispatched to help the Haitian police rein in the gangs.

While the multinational force has succeeded in rounding up some gang leaders, the power of these criminal organisations has grown to such an extent that Prime Minister Conille expanded the state of emergency to the whole country earlier this month.

The multinational force suffers from underfunding and so far only 600 Kenyans and a small contingent of Jamaicans have arrived in Haiti, though an additional 400 Kenyans were in recent days pledged by that country’s president on a visit to the republic.

Last week, United Nations Secretary General António Guterres berated the international community for not offering Haiti more help: “I find it a scandal that it has been so difficult to mobilize funds for such a dramatic situation,” he said.

From: Bahamas Information Services
By LLONELLA GILBERT

 


NASSAU, The Bahamas — Minister of National Security the Hon. Wayne Munroe said despite global efforts to combat it, Human Trafficking keeps growing.

“It thrives where there is poverty, a lack of education or any area in which there is a conflict,” the National Security Minister said at the Opening of the Bahamas National Neighbourhood Watch Council Two-Day Workshop on Human Trafficking at the Paul E. Farquharson Centre, Police Headquarters on Wednesday, September 25, 2024.

He explained that there are countries in our hemisphere where those three issues are happening and persons from those nations are being trafficked to The Bahamas and elsewhere.

“It is happening in our country, so there is no point seeking to hide our head in the sand and saying it is happening somewhere else.”

The Minister noted that authorities have found young Bahamian girls who were trafficked for sexual exploitation by family members.

He said human trafficking continues to be a problem because it is a lucrative industry.

The Minister explained that the International Labour Organization statistics show that over $150 billion was made from human trafficking in 2017.

He said local law enforcement officials need all the help they can get to address this problem.

The Minister said, “Therefore, it is critical for the National Neighbourhood Watch Council and its constituent neighbourhood watch associations to be part of the effort to eliminate modern day slavery.”

Trafficking in Persons Task Force Chairman, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Indirah Belle said the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime estimated that in 2022, 50 million persons were illegally trafficked globally; and in the Caribbean and Latin American region most are girls under the age of 18.

ASP Belle said although there are instances of Bahamians being trafficked, The Bahamas is mainly a destination and not a source country.

She said human trafficking is known as transporting people against their will and is different from human smuggling.

ASP Belle explained that human trafficking is not voluntary while human smuggling is voluntary and people usually pay to be taken across borders.

She also explained that people are being trafficked not only for cheap labour and the sex industry.

ASP Belle said people are being trafficked for their organs.  A heart can go for $120,000, a kidney for $150,000, a pancreas for $125,000 and a stomach for $500,000.

She said some of the causes for human trafficking include poverty, lack of education, abuse, homelessness, family dysfunction, political instability, unemployment, civil unrest/armed conflict and natural disasters.

ASP Belle explained that human trafficking can be prevented by dealing with the root causes.

She said this can be done by:

• Reducing the vulnerability of potential victims through social and economic development;
• Discouraging the demands for the services of trafficked persons;
• Public education;
• Law enforcement interventions/healthcare interventions/social assistance;
• Preventing the corruption of public officials; and
• Creating employment opportunities

PHOTO CAPTION

Minister of National Security the Hon. Wayne Munroe brought remarks at the Opening of the Bahamas National Neighbourhood Watch Council Two-Day Workshop on Human Trafficking at the Paul E. Farquharson Centre, Police Headquarters, on Wednesday, September 25, 2024.  Trafficking in Persons Task Force Chairman, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Indirah Belle was the main presenter at the workshop.      (BIS Photos/Patrice Johnson)