The United States has asked the United Nations to immediately freeze its contribution to a fund to finance a multinational mission to help Haitian police fight gangs, the UN said Wednesday.
"We have received official notification from the United States of the immediate suspension of its (financial) contribution to the multinational security support force," said Stéphane Dujarric, citing this notification as an example of the impact of the general freeze on American international aid announced by Donald Trump.
In October 2023, the UN Security Council had given the green light to the Kenyan-led International Security Support Mission (MMAS) to assist the Haitian police, which had been overwhelmed by gang violence.
MMAS is not a UN force, but the UN has set up a voluntary fund to finance it, which has so far raised $110 million, a sum considered largely insufficient.
With $15 million, the United States was the second largest contributor to this fund, behind Canada ($63 million).
Of the $15 million contributed by Washington, $1.7 million has already been spent, Stéphane Dujarric said, indicating that the remaining $13.3 million is now "frozen."
Under the MMAS, only around 800 police officers from six countries have been progressively deployed since last summer, out of the 2,500 planned. Attacks by gangs, which the UN says now control 85 percent of the capital, do not appear to have abated since then.
In this context, Haitian transitional authorities are calling for the mission to be transformed into a UN peacekeeping force.
Shortly after his inauguration on January 20, US President Donald Trump suspended foreign aid for three months to allow for a full review of aid, including to detect programs that promote diversity or abortion.
In early January, the UN announced that more than 5,600 people had been killed by gang violence. The Office of Human Rights documented 315 lynching's of gang members and alleged associates; at least 281 cases of alleged summary executions involved specialized police units.
Gang violence in Haiti has left more than 6 million people, nearly half the population, in need of humanitarian assistance. More than a million people are displaced and around 2 million suffer from severe food insecurity, including 6,000 people facing famine, according to UN figures.
