In late February, UN Secretary-General António Guterres recommended that the Security Council establish a UN-funded logistics support office to bolster the Kenyan-led Multinational Security Support Mission (MSS) in Haiti. The proposal, prepared in response to the Council’s November request for a “full range of options” of assistance the UN could provide to the Haitian authorities and the MSS, comes at a moment when Haiti’s politics are fragile and security conditions are deteriorating across Port-au-Prince and the surrounding regions. Security Council members will spend the coming weeks dissecting the secretary-general’s proposal and testing whether they are prepared to back it.

Why does the MSS need reinforcements?

The Security Council authorized the MSS in October 2023 to assist the Haitian National Police (HNP) in conducting offensive operations against armed gangs and protecting strategic locations across Haiti, with the goal of improving security conditions sufficiently so that the Haitian authorities could hold general elections. Though backed by a Security Council resolution, the MSS is not a UN-led mission. Some diplomats and UN officials preferred this route as a way to give the mission more latitude in conducting offensive police operations. They also hesitated to send UN peacekeepers back to the country due to MINUSTAH’s checkered legacy in the country. This approach, however, has left the MSS without the benefit of the UN’s extensive operational, financial, and administrative assistance.  Read more