US Ambassador Announces $60 Million in Aid, New Resources for Police During Haiti Visit

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations has announced an additional $60 million in humanitarian assistance for Haiti during a trip to the troubled Caribbean country on Monday.

Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield also said the U.S. Department of Defense would provide a “substantial increase” in mine-resistant vehicles to a U.N.-backed, Kenya-led multinational security mission to help Haiti’s national police combat widespread gang violence.

The announcement came nearly a week after a second Kenyan contingent A contingent of 200 police officers has arrived in Haiti, following the first contingent of 200 police officers that arrived last month.

“We know that progress is not linear. There will inevitably be setbacks and obstacles, but this mission has paved the way for progress,” Thomas-Greenfield said.

She said USAID assistance, which now totals more than $165 million this fiscal year, would address gaps in nutrition, food security and shelter, improve water and sanitation services and provide Haitians with cash to buy basic necessities.

Earlier Monday, Thomas-Greenfield met with Kenyan police and leaders of Haiti’s new transitional government as part of a one-day visit to encourage action on Haiti’s humanitarian crisis and political reform leading to yet-to-be-scheduled democratic elections.

“It’s not a naive hope, but I have a sense of hope. It’s been a remarkable day on the ground,” she said.

The new transitional government led by the outgoing president, Prime Minister Garry Conillea former U.N. development officer who took up his post in early June. Earlier this month, he told the U.N. Security Council that Kenyan police would play a crucial role in helping to control the country’s gangs and move towards democratic elections.

The gangs have grown in power since then July 7, 2021, assassination of President Jovenel Moïse and now control up to 80 percent of the capital and its environs. The surge in killings, rapes and kidnappings has led to a violent uprising by civilian self-defense groups.

According to UN agencies, the violence has displaced 580,000 people, more than half of them children, and left 4 million people facing food insecurity.

Haiti had requested the immediate deployment of a foreign armed force to fight the gangs in late 2022, and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres had been calling for months for a country to lead the force before the Kenyans stepped forward.

The multinational force will eventually number 2,500 troops from Kenya, the Bahamas, Bangladesh, Barbados, Benin, Chad and Jamaica. They will be deployed in phases at a cost of some $600 million a year, according to the UN Security Council.

The United States provided more than $300 million to the force, whose formation was backed by a U.N. resolution.

Kenyan police will train Haitian national police for joint security operations that have yet to begin, the official said.

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Associated Press reporter Jade Lozada at the United Nations contributed to this report.

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Follow AP’s coverage of Haiti at https://apnews.com/hub/haiti