The UN-backed Gang Suppression Force - an international mobilization intended to help Haiti's police fight powerful armed gangs in the Caribbean country - should fully deploy by October this year, Roberto Alvarez, foreign minister of the neighbouring Dominican Republic, said on Tuesday.
Alvarez, who spoke after a meeting with US embassy officials, said new troops from Chad are now being trained in the United States and the Kenyan police who deployed to Haiti under an earlier model of the force should withdraw gradually.
Members of the first contingent of Kenyan police offers stand in formation after arriving in the Caribbean country as part of a peacekeeping mission, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti June 26, 2024.
Photo credit: Reuters
"These Chadian forces are training in the United States right now," Alvarez said, adding the Kenyans forces would withdraw gradually.
"It will not be immediate but will give time for the new forces to arrive and familiarize themselves," he said.
Alvarez said deployments should begin from the start of April and the force should reach its full capacity of 5,500 by October this year.
The force's initial 12-month mandate expires at the end of September 2026, but the UN Security Council may vote to renew it.
The Gang Suppression Force was introduced as a larger successor to the Kenyan-led Multinational Security Support mission, but no significant deployments have arrived since its approval September last year. Currently, the force is made up of mostly Kenyan police, as well as smaller numbers from a handful of countries in Central America and the Caribbean.
The previous mission was hamstrung by lack of troops, funds and equipment. Both the GSF and MSS rely on voluntary contributions from member states.
Chad in October 2023 told the UN it was willing to contribute troops and police to the MSS, without specifying numbers or a timeline. At the time, the UN also received similar pledges from Benin and Bangladesh. None have so far deployed.
Thousands of Haitians have been killed and over a million displaced in clashes between security forces and gangs that are largely armed with guns trafficked from the US.
