{"id":6291,"date":"2024-10-26T11:53:56","date_gmt":"2024-10-26T11:53:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/?p=6291"},"modified":"2024-10-26T11:53:56","modified_gmt":"2024-10-26T11:53:56","slug":"un-extends-kenya-led-force-to-tackle-gangs-in-haiti-but-sidelines-call-for-un-peacekeepers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/2024\/10\/26\/un-extends-kenya-led-force-to-tackle-gangs-in-haiti-but-sidelines-call-for-un-peacekeepers\/","title":{"rendered":"UN extends Kenya-led force to tackle gangs in Haiti, but sidelines call for UN peacekeepers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Link to article: https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/un-haiti-gangs-kenya-multinational-force-peacekeeping-bab6d3c545c6f2558fd5c45d00b07f55<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a unanimous vote, the U.N. has extended the mandate of the Kenya-led mission to send military personnel and police officers to Haiti to combat the prevalent gang violence in the area. Although Haiti has requested a peacekeeping mission, the U.N. has decided not to send any peacekeepers at this time. Instead, they have elected to remove any acknowledgement of the request in the resolution at the behest of the ambassadors from China and Russia. Currently, the mission is still significantly under-resourced and underfunded, with only around 424 officers from Kenya and Jamaica out of their pledged 2500 from them and several additional countries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is the continuation of a story that I reported on in the last Regional Report. Although the mandate has been extended until October 2025, not much else has changed. Granted, it hasn’t been all that long. The contrast between the unanimous vote to extend the mandate and the lack of funding and resources, however, is very telling. It shows us that we all want <\/em>to help Haiti, but very few countries are committed enough to send large amounts of their money or officers. The US, for example, is sending money but is not sending officers and likely won’t — Haiti is not important enough to risk endangering their citizens. This aspect, too, might explain the push from some countries to start a peacekeeping operation. Sending peacekeepers may sound more justifiable to a country’s people than sending soldiers. China’s ambassador may have a point, though, in saying the conditions in Haiti are not suited to a peacekeeping mission, at this time — 80% of the capital is controlled by gangs, peace can’t be kept if there isn’t any peace to begin with. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The best course of action to secure safety in Haiti is to send the promised personnel — potentially more as the conflict goes on. The conditions in Haiti are showing no real signs of getting better without serious aid; Haiti simply doesn’t have the resources or infrastructure to fight back against these gangs. There’s not a huge incentive, however, (beyond moral obligations) for these countries to utilize their own resources to help Haiti — most of the global powers are unlikely to send more than funding. In that respect, I do think it will have to fall more heavily on these newer developed countries looking to assert themselves as global leaders (like Kenya) to contribute the necessary resources. When or if this mission gains more traction and changes start being made in Haiti, a peacekeeping mission should start being considered. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I’ve been discussing in essentially all of this analysis, this situation is a great example of the conflicts national interest creates. In an ideal world, the international community would all chip in to help with any humanitarian crisis, and we’d all live in a system of perfect reciprocity. In reality, however, every country has to look after their own citizens’ wants and needs before they help anyone else — and any help they give has to be justified to their people. That’s why the biggest contributors in this mission are countries that have a cultural or geographical connection with Haiti, it’s easier to justify lending troops to your neighbor than a stranger. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Link to article: https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/un-haiti-gangs-kenya-multinational-force-peacekeeping-bab6d3c545c6f2558fd5c45d00b07f55 In a unanimous vote, the U.N. has extended the mandate of the Kenya-led mission to send military personnel and police officers to Haiti to combat the prevalent gang violence in the area. Although Haiti has requested a peacekeeping mission, the U.N. has decided not to send any peacekeepers at this time. Instead, they have elected to… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":295,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/295"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6291"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6291\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6292,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6291\/revisions\/6292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}