As UN meets, Haitians express hopelessness at finding an international solution to gang crisis

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — As world leaders meeting in the United Nations this week discuss the future of efforts to rein in the gangs strangling Haiti, Haitians are expressing hopelessness that an international response can turn the tide of violence.

Thus far, a UN-backed force of 400 police from Kenya and about two dozen Jamaican officers have done little to quell the country's gangs, which have terrorized the country since the 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse. World leaders have been discussing the next steps in a convoluted efforts to restore order to the Caribbean nation.

The United States has floated the idea of a U.N. peacekeeping force, but the idea was considered too controversial given the introduction of cholera and sexual abuse cases that occurred the last time U.N. troops were in Haiti.

The deployment of Kenyan forces was, in part, to avoid tensions that may be sparked by sending another U.N. peacekeeping mission.

But in a visit to Haiti by Kenya's President William Ruto over the weekend – on his way to the United Nations General Assembly session, which began on Sunday – Ruto said he would be open to expanding Kenya's operations into a larger U.N. peacekeeping mission.

“On the suggestion to transit this into a fully U.N. Peacekeeping mission, we have absolutely no problem with it, if that is the direction the U.N. security council wants to take,” Ruto said.

While Ruto hailed the successes of the Kenyan forces on Sunday, a recent report by a UN human rights expert said gang violence is spreading across Haiti and that Haitian police still lack the “logistical and technical capacity” to fight gangs.

The ongoing violence has left Haitians like 39-year-old Mario Canteve disillusioned with further international efforts to quell the gangs, saying he no longer believes promises by world leaders that they'll be able to change anything in the crisis-stricken nation.

“No one is coming to save Haiti. Nothing is changing," he said. “A new mission cannot save Haiti.”

Canteve sells cellphone chips and repairs electronics in the capital of Port-au-Prince, 80% of which is estimated to be controlled by gangs. Facing brutal gang violence, some Haitians have organized vigilante groups to battle the gangs themselves.

Such groups speak to the lack of hope many Haitians have that an international solution can mark a shift in Haiti.

Moise Jean-Pierre, a 50-year-old school teacher, recalled past U.N. missions in Haiti and said such efforts were a “waste of time.”

“It would not be the first time we've had U.N. missions in Haiti,” he said. “What difference will it make?”

Sentiments on the ground speak to the bind world leaders are in as they've spent years looking for a larger solution to Haiti's woes.

Kenya's government pledged an additional 600 officers, and the current 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. Though it still is not clear when that would happen.

Few at the U.N. have an appetite for a larger peacekeeping mission in part due to the abuses in past missions, but also because many Haitians have an aversion to foreign interventions. Experts say three previous interventions by US and the UN have not improved crises in Haiti.

Some harbor hope that elections planned next year will pave the path to a Haitian-born solution.

The country has not held general elections since 2016 as the crisis has dragged on.

Last week, Haiti took its first steps in creating a provisional election council to prepare the nation for elections. Haiti still has many hurdles ahead of it to get there. Chief among them is violence.

While Canteve, the cellphone chip salesman, called for unity and said “a new mission cannot save Haiti, the children of Haiti need to save themselves,” he also expressed doubts the country was safe enough to facilitate elections.

“How can you hold an election when everything is so violent. Everyone is shooting," he said. "When police cannot even go into certain areas, what kind of election are going to get?”