The United Nations Security Council voted on October 2, 2023 to authorize a Kenyan-led Multinational Security Support mission to Haiti, approving Resolution 2699 with the mandate to help restore security in a country where criminal gangs controlled an estimated 80 percent of the capital and where the state had lost effective authority over large swaths of the country. The authorization marked a significant escalation in international engagement with Haiti’s security crisis after years of debate about the appropriate form of intervention.
Kenya had offered to lead the mission earlier in the year, marking the first time an African Union country had offered to lead a major peacekeeping-type operation outside of Africa. The offer was accepted with some ambivalence — Haiti’s history of international security interventions, including MINUSTAH’s troubled legacy, made many Haitians and international observers cautious about another external security presence, however well-intentioned.
The mission was authorized to deploy up to 1,000 personnel with a mandate to support the Haitian National Police in combating gang violence, protecting critical infrastructure, and creating conditions for political stabilization and elections. Jamaica, Belize, the Bahamas, and other countries committed to contributing personnel alongside Kenya’s lead contingent.
However, almost immediately after the Security Council authorization, a Kenyan court blocked the government from deploying police officers to Haiti, ruling that the deployment agreement between Kenya and Haiti had not been properly ratified by parliament. The legal challenge set back the deployment timeline significantly and created uncertainty about whether and when the mission would actually arrive in Haiti.