The United Nations Security Council voted in September 2025 to authorize the transformation of the Multinational Security Support Mission into a Gang Suppression Force with a significantly expanded mandate and authorized personnel ceiling. The new force — authorized under UN Security Council Resolution 2793 — could include up to 5,550 personnel comprising police, military, and civilian staff, with the authority to act either independently or in coordination with the Haitian National Police and to conduct operations specifically targeting the neutralization of criminal groups.
The transformation from a support mission to a Gang Suppression Force represented a significant escalation of international commitment to addressing Haiti’s security crisis, acknowledging that the limited MSS approach had been insufficient to reverse gang territorial control and that a more robust and proactive mandate was needed. The new force was explicitly authorized to conduct offensive operations against gang networks rather than purely defensive and support functions.
The authorization was welcomed by the Haitian transitional government and by civil society organizations that had been calling for a more robust international security response for years. They noted that the authorization of a more powerful force was meaningless without adequate funding and rapid deployment, and called on the international community to ensure that Resolution 2793 translated into actual operational capacity on the ground more quickly than the MSS mission had deployed.
Critics raised concerns about the expanded use of force authority in a densely populated urban environment where civilian harm was an inherent risk of offensive operations. They called for strong human rights safeguards, robust accountability mechanisms, and clear rules of engagement that prioritized civilian protection even as the force pursued gang networks in contested areas. The transformation of the security mission was the most significant international security decision on Haiti in years; its implementation would determine whether it represented the turning point the country needed.