WASHINGTON, US
Benin has offered 2,000 troops to support a planned Kenyan-led international force to help Haitian national police fight armed gangs, US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield told a press conference on Monday.
The United Nations authorised
the mission in October, a year after Haiti's unelected government requested it.
The UN estimates the conflict in the Caribbean nation killed close to
5,000 people last year and has driven some 300,000 from their homes.
Thomas-Greenfield, speaking in
Guyana where she traveled to lead the US delegation to the Caribbean
Community (CARICOM) summit there, said she had learned just before starting the
trip that Benin had offered the troops to support the force.
She said some Caribbean
countries that had pledged support had called for more Francophone nations to
join the effort.
A US statement issued on
the sidelines of the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro last week had announced
"financial, personnel, and in-kind commitments to the mission" from
Benin, France and Canada, the latter which later announced 80.5 million Canadian
dollars ($60 million) for the mission.
The United States has itself
committed $200 million and pledged to boost efforts to stem the flow of illicit
arms to the Caribbean region. The UN estimates firearms held by Haitian
gangs are largely smuggled from the United States.
Thomas-Greenfield added that
Guyana had also pledged funds to the mission, though she did not give an
amount.
Kenya, which has pledged to
lead the mission, offered 1,000 police officers, but a local court later barred
the move as unconstitutional. President William Ruto has, however, said the
plan will go ahead and meetings have since continued.
So far public offers to
support the security force, which is based on voluntary contributions, have
come largely from developing nations in Africa and the Caribbean.
Thomas-Greenfield said she had
held meetings with Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry and encouraged both him
and opposition groups to agree on a path forward, noting that no time frame has
been set for the country's long-awaited elections.
Henry, who came to power after
the assassination of the country's last president in 2021, had pledged to step
down by early February, but later said security must first be re-established in
order to ensure free and fair elections.
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