The United Nations extends the arms embargo against Haiti to include all types of weapons and ammunition

UNITED NATIONS — The UN Security Council voted unanimously on Friday to extend Haiti’s arms embargo to all types of weapons and ammunition, expressing deep concern at extremely high levels of gang violence and criminal activity in the impoverished Caribbean nation.

The resolution authorizes the 193 UN member states to “take appropriate measures to prevent the illicit trafficking and diversion of arms and related materials in Haiti.” U.N. experts said increasingly sophisticated weapons that end up in the hands of gang members and criminals are being smuggled from the United States, particularly Florida.

The resolution also extends by one year a travel ban and asset freeze for people on the UN sanctions blacklist. In late September, the Council’s committee monitoring sanctions against Haiti added two people to the list, including five gang leaders.

One of them was Elan Luckson, leader of the Gran Grif gang, which killed at least 115 people in early October in the town of Pont-Sondé in the Artibonite region bordering the capital in one of the largest massacres in Haiti in recent history. The other was Victor Prophane, a former member of the Haitian parliament accused of involvement in the arms trade.

The gangs’ power in Haiti has grown since the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in 2021, and they are now estimated to control up to 80% of the capital, Port-au-Prince. They have also moved to surrounding areas.

The increase in murders, rapes and kidnappings has led to a violent uprising by civilian vigilante groups.

The Security Council voted unanimously in early October to extend the mandate of the Kenya-led multinational force tasked with helping the Haitian National Police fight the gangs.

The leaders of Kenya and Haiti last week called on international partners to honor their commitment to the United Nations-backed force in Haiti, saying the mission needed more resources and that its budget would be exhausted in March 2025.

Kenyan President William Ruto, who met with Haitian Prime Minister Garry Conille in Nairobi a week ago, said Kenya would send 600 additional officials next month to join the 400 officials already in the country.

Nearly two dozen police and soldiers from Jamaica are also in Haiti, but the number is well below the 2,500 that various countries, including Chad, Benin, Bangladesh and Barbados, have committed to the mission.

The Council resolution adopted Friday, co-sponsored by Ecuador and the United States, also encourages the Haitian government to strengthen the management of police weapons, ammunition and confiscated weapons and to “strengthen border and customs controls to curb illicit trafficking and diversion.” .” ”

It extends the expert panel that monitors the implementation of the sanctions by 13 months.

Ecuador’s political coordinator, Irina Barba Bustos, told the Council after the vote that sanctions are part of the comprehensive response essential to address the crisis in Haiti and promote a political solution and a peaceful and prosperous future for the people of Haiti be.

The arms embargo previously applied to “small arms, light weapons and ammunition”. The resolution expands it to include “weapons and related materials of all kinds.”

Bustos said the extension of the arms embargo “strengthens our efforts in the fight against transnational organized crime that uses all forms of violence against the civilian population, especially against women.”