US freezes funding contributions to Haiti multinational security force: UN

US freezes funding contributions to Haiti multinational security force: UN

The United States has frozen its financial contributions to a United Nations fund for a multinational security support mission in Haiti, a UN spokesperson said on Tuesday, a move that would stop $13.3 million in pending aid.

"We received an official notification from the US asking for an immediate stop work order on their contribution" to the trust fund for the Multinational Security Support (MSS) mission, said Stephane Dujarric, the UN secretary-general's spokesperson, referring to the already underfunded Kenya-led force.

The UN Security Council gave the green light in October 2023 to the Multinational Security Support (MSS) mission designed to support Haiti's authorities in their fight against criminal gangs, which control swaths of the country.

Washington's funding freeze comes as part of newly elected President Donald Trump's push to slash US overseas aid, a drive that has included an effort to shutter the operations of the government's main aid agency, USAID.

In late January, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that Haiti's capital could become overrun by gangs if the international community does not step up aid to the security mission.

More money, equipment and personnel are needed for the international force, Guterres said, adding that any further delays risk the "catastrophic" collapse of Haiti's security institutions and "could allow gangs to overrun the entire metropolitan area" of the capital Port-au-Prince.

Haiti's Foreign Minister Jean-Victor Harvel Jean-Baptiste, speaking at a meeting of the UN Security Council, has said that the country faced "major difficulties" that threaten not just the population but also "the very survival of the state." 

The MSS is not a UN force, but the UN has set up a voluntary fund to finance it, which has raised $110 million to date, an amount that has been deemed largely insufficient.

Just under 800 of the 2,500 security personnel hoped for have been deployed.

The United States had transferred $15 million to the fund -- the second-largest contribution, after Canada's $63 million -- with $1.7 million already disbursed.

In parallel with the UN-hosted fund, the United States, then headed by Joe Biden, had contributed over $300 million in funds and equipment directly to the MSS, including dozens of armored vehicles.

Haiti currently has no president or parliament and is ruled by a transitional body, which is struggling to manage extreme violence linked to criminal gangs, poverty and other challenges.

More than 5,626 people were killed in Haiti last year as a result of gang violence, about a thousand more than in 2023, the UN said. 

More than a million Haitians have been forced to flee their homes, three times as many as a year ago.

abd-aha/jgc

Originally published as US freezes funding contributions to Haiti multinational security force: UN