UN Security Council expands Haiti arms embargo

Members of the Royal Bahamas Defence Force arrive at Toussaint Louverture International Airport in Port-au-Prince, Haiti on October 18, 2024. (Photo by Clarens SIFFROY / AFP)

The UN Security Council voted unanimously on Friday to expand an arms embargo on Haiti, as the impoverished Caribbean nation struggles to wrest back control from powerful gangs.All 15 members voted for the resolution, which calls for UN member states to block shipments of “arms and related materiel of all types” from entering Haiti.A previous embargo targeted only small arms and ammunition.

The resolution, drafted by Ecuador and the United States, also includes a one-year renewal of a committee for monitoring sanctions against certain Haitians.

The Security Council first approved the sanctions regime in October 2022, but at the time the measures only targeted one gang leader, Jimmy Cherizier, who uses the alias “Barbecue.”

In late February, Cherizier launched a coordinated gang revolt in the capital Port-au-Prince, which eventually precipitated in the country’s unelected prime minister stepping down and handing power to a transitional council.

Since then, an interim prime minister has taken office and a Kenyan-led multinational force has arrived in the country to prop up Haiti’s struggling police force, though gangs continue to wield wide control.

In early October, an attack by the Gran Grif gang in the town of Pont Sonde left at least 109 people dead and dozens wounded, in one of the worst massacres in the nation’s recent history.

The leader of the gang, Luckson Elan, had been added days earlier to the UN sanctions list, which now includes seven individuals.

US representative Dorothy Shea told the Council on Friday that the situation in Haiti “remains dire.”

“The United States remains deeply concerned by the security and humanitarian crises in Haiti. Too many people continue to suffer from ongoing violence,” she said.

Kenya is set to send 600 additional police officers in November for the support mission, which was approved by the UN Security Council last year but is not a UN peacekeeping mission.