UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United States said Tuesday it will put forward a U.N. Security Council resolution that will authorize Kenya to lead a multinational police force to help combat gangs in Haiti that control much of the capital and are spreading through the Caribbean nation.
U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield told a news conference at the start of the U.S. presidency of the council this month that “we welcome Kenya’s decision to lead the multinational force (and) we will be working on a resolution to support that effort.”
Haiti’s Prime Minister Ariel Henry sent an urgent appeal last October for “the immediate deployment of a specialized armed force, in sufficient quantity” to stop the gangs. U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres had been appealing unsuccessfully since then for a lead nation to help restore order to Latin America’s most impoverished country.