Ruto wants UN to manage orderly transition in Haiti as Kenyan forces pull out
We emphasized the urgency for the Security Council to guide a responsible and timely transition, Ruto said
Kenyan President William Ruto warned this week that the Multinational Security Support Mission (MSS) led by his country in Haiti would end next month and called on the UN to guide a responsible transition.
Despite global efforts, homicides have increased by 24% and the number of internally displaced people has also risen significantly.
The MSS, which began in 2024 with a UN mandate to combat armed gangs controlling most of Port-au-Prince, was under-resourced. Less than half of the initially planned 2,500 troops were deployed, and only 30% of the required equipment was delivered.
In this scenario, 4,026 murders were recorded in the first semester of 2025, in addition to 1.3 million displaced people.
Neighboring Dominican Republic President Luis Abinader expressed regret about the mission’s limitations and announced that he will use the upcoming UN General Assembly to once again denounce the international community’s lack of commitment to Haiti.
Ruto made this statement during a bilateral meeting with Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley at the second summit between Africa and the Caribbean Community (Caricom), held at the African Union (AU) headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
We discussed ways to deepen our ties and reviewed urgent global security challenges, with a special focus on the mission in Haiti, Ruto explained while highlighting the urgency for the [UN] Security Council to guide a responsible and timely transition.
With the current mandate nearing expiration, we emphasized the urgency for the Security Council to guide a responsible and timely transition, Ruto said.
With key funding from Washington,
The MSS is an initiative requested by Haiti and approved by the UN Security Council in 2023.
It is made up of about 1,000 troops, mostly Kenyan, but also from Jamaica, Belize, the Bahamas, Guatemala, and El Salvador.
Before the MSS, the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH), assumed broad security functions in Haiti between 2004 and 2017, but was replaced by a much smaller police force, which concluded in 2019.
However, allegations surfaced linking UN troops to the sexual exploitation of poor women. They were also held responsible for the 2010 cholera outbreak.
United Nations Security Council Resolution 2699, adopted on October 2, 2023, mandated the MSS to assist the Haitian police in combating gangs, restoring security, and creating conditions for free and fair elections. It also granted the mission temporary executive police authority in Haitian territory, including powers of detention and arrest.
It is now a fact that President Ruto, with whom I have a good relationship, has announced that this situation will end at the end of the year. I believe that the United States has a different policy regarding security and the restoration of order in Haiti. That is what they have told us. We hope that this new policy will be successful, Abinader pointed out.
I am going to repeat my criticism of the international community and its abandonment of Haiti, and I am going to say so both in my speech and in bilateral talks, because the truth is that we continue to bear a heavy burden with this situation, especially in the Dominican Republic, he added.
