Efforts to establish a United Nations office in Haiti to provide logistical and operational support for the newly authorized Gang Suppression Force are on track to meet Security Council deadlines, Secretary-General António Guterres’ office said.

“The first air asset from the mission, which is a helicopter, is now in Port-au-Prince,” Stéphane Dujarric, Guterres’ spokesman said. “This is an important step for our colleagues’ logistics and operational mobility.”

Additional equipment is being shipped from the U.N. logistics base in Brindisi, Italy, he added, and another shipment has been confirmed from Baghdad. That cargo includes equipment from the now-closed U.N. Assistance Mission for Iraq.

The Security Council authorized the Haiti Support Office, directing the U.N. to establish it within six months of the measure’s adoption. Dujarric said the organization remains on schedule to provide support to the force by March 31, and support services to the U.N. Integrated Office in Haiti by Feb. 1.

The preparations are unfolding amid mounting concerns over governance in Haiti’s ongoing transition. Five members of the Transitional Presidential Council have sought to remove the prime minister, Alix Didier Fils-Aimé, and council president Laurent Saint-Cyr ahead of the expiration of the council’s mandate on Feb. 7. The move prompted the Trump administration to impose sanctions on the five council members as well as a cabinet minister reportedly selected by the group to replace Fils-Aimé.

On Thursday, the United States mission at the U.N. reiterated the administration’s position on the prime minister’s future.

“Prime Minister Fils-Aimé’s tenure as Haiti’s prime minister remains integral to advancing efforts to combat terrorist gangs and stabilizing the country,” said U.S. Ambassador Jennifer Locetta, alternative representative to the U.N. for special political affairs. “The current violence caused by gangs can only be stopped with consistent, strong leadership and with the full support of the Haitian people.

“As Secretary (Marco) Rubio stated,” she added, “the Transitional Presidential Council must be dissolved by February 7 without corrupt actors seeking to interfere in Haiti’s path to elected governance for their own gains. Haiti’s many supporters remain unwavering in their commitment to the future of the country.”

The U.S. position on the end of the presidential council’s mandate on Feb. 7 and the current political maneuvering among its members, which has slowed down negotiations to put a governing arrangement in place, was shared by a number of countries including France, the United Kingdom, China and the Caribbean Community.

“The next few weeks are extremely concerning for everyone,” Diego Da Rin, Haiti analyst for the International Crisis Group, said Thursday during a webinar to discuss the organization’s latest report, “Undoing Haiti’s Deadly Gang Alliance.”

Haiti’s gangs, which have united under the Viv Ansanm banner, “very frequently exploit the rise in political disputes to launch large-scale offensives and try to build on this lack of focus of the authorities on the security front to destabilize the government as they did in early 2024 and in other periods,” Da Rin said.

The concerns extend beyond the current crisis. The possible end of immigration protections for over 350,000 Haitians in the United States could exacerbate the situation if large numbers are forced to return to a country where more than 1.4 million people have already been internally displaced by gang violence and the political future remains uncertain.

On Tuesday, Haitians could lose legal protections from deportation if a decision by the Trump administration to end Haiti’s Temporary Protected Status designation stands.

“It is likely that the gangs will, at some point in the near future, try to mount an offensive, try to derail the plans to have this stronger force with a more robust mandate that should be deployed in the coming months,” Da Rin said. “Also with the prospect of political disputes that could rise ... this will be like the perfect scenario for Viv Ansanm to try to escalate their offensive and try to overwhelm security forces that are combating on the ground.”

New personnel

The interim director of the new support office, Stephen McOwan, arrived in Port-au-Prince over the weekend, Dujarric said. McOwan has joined 37 staff members already deployed to the Haitian capital.

In December, the U.N. announced that Jack Christofides, a veteran peace-building expert, would lead the new force, which has a stronger mandate than the previous Kenya-led Multinational Security Support to neutralize gangs and protect critical infrastructure.

A second office was established last week in Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti. The Dominican Republic has also been designated as a medical evacuation destination as part of its cooperation with the mission.

The Santo Domingo office will provide human resources, finance and travel services to both the new Haiti Support Office and the U.N. Integrated Office in Port-au-Prince.

Voluntary contributions

The Gang Suppression Force, expected to be five times the size of the Kenya-led mission that was first deployed to Haiti over a year and a half ago, is the creation of the United States and Panama at the U.N. The idea is to help Haitian authorities take on armed gangs whose violence led to the deaths of more than 8,000 people and thousands of reported rapes last year.

A dozen countries have so far offered to deploy troops, and the first contingent is expected to begin arriving in April, with most of the soldiers expected to be in Haiti by summer. Unlike the Kenya-led police mission, the new force is more military-focused and will be deployed independently of the Haiti National Police.

The force will be funded through obligatory contributions of U.N. member states, while the salaries of the deployed personnel will come from voluntary contributions. While it’s still unclear how much funding the force has, a U.N. Trust Fund set up for countries to support salaries has generated $173 million in pledges.

Armed groups in Haiti seek to expand their territory and to enter into politics to get amnesty. Gangs continue to control large swaths of Port-au-Prince and are expanding into other regions of the country.

In June, the U.N. Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary General for Children and Armed Conflict listed the Viv Ansanm gang coalition as one of the groups that commits most of the most grave crimes against civilians in Haiti and children.

U.N. vote to renew political office’s mandate in Haiti

During Thursday’s Security Council vote to renew the mandate of the U.N. political office in Haiti, diplomats stressed the role of the new force, as well as the U.N. Support Office in Haiti and the U.N. Integrated Office, in supporting the security and stability of Haiti. They acknowledged the expanded roles of the integrated office, which includes facilitating a national dialogue, supporting scheduled elections and implementing judicial reforms and assistance in the disarmament, demobilization and reintegration of gang members, especially children. But Colombia raised concerns that the resolution removed references to women, peace and security and gender-based violence.

“Colombia regrets that certain fundamental aspects of the mandate are missing,” Ambassador Leonor Zalabata Torres said, echoing concerns raised by Denmark. “We need to look at the structural nature of gender-based violence as a violation of human rights and a manifestation of unequal powers. And all this is very, very entrenched; access to justice and the reparation mechanisms for the survivors is important, and there is a systematic exclusion of women from decision-making processes.”

The resolution extends the U.N. integrated office in Haiti until Jan. 30, 2027. It will be headed by Carlos Gabriel Ruiz-Massieu Aguirre, the special representative of the U.N. Secretary-General. In that role, he will need to closely coordinate with the Gang Suppression Force and international organizations in assisting Haitian authorities in addressing prolonged pretrial detention and monitoring gang activities, the resolution says.

“The resolution just adopted expressed grave concern over the continued flow of illegal weapons into Haiti and calls on (the U.N. office) to cooperate with the sanctions committee and the panel of experts to urge the implementation of the Security Council’s arms embargo measures,” Ambassador Fu Cong of China said. “For Haiti to truly break free from the cycle of crisis and achieve sustainable peace and development, concerted efforts are required from Haiti itself, regional countries and the international community.”

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