On 16 June the UN Secretary-General António Guterres walked through Port-au-Prince, where gangs control as much as 90 per cent of the capital and where, by UN figures, around 2,300 people have been killed this year and 1.5 million displaced — more than one in ten Haitians. A newly authorised Gang Suppression Force, with troops so far from Jamaica, Chad, El Salvador and Guatemala, is beginning to deploy to replace an earlier, underfunded Kenyan-led mission.
Guterres called the deployment a real chance to restore the authority of the state, but warned that security without political progress will not hold, and reserved his sharpest words for the wider world — naming “the indifference of a world that has looked away.” Haiti has had no president since the assassination of Jovenel Moïse in 2021; the transitional government is under pressure to hold elections it cannot yet secure. The force is a chance. Whether the countries backing it follow through is the open question.
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UN News — A turning point for Haiti? New security force takes fight to powerful gangs
NPR — UN chief visits Haiti, where a new 'gang-suppression force' will be deployed
The Washington Post — UN chief visits Haiti, where a new international force will be deployed
Location: Port-au-Prince, Haiti — 18.59° N, 72.31° W