A February UN report detailed four sexual abuse investigations involving members of the Multinational Security Support (MSS), a Kenyan-led, US-backed military mission combating gang violence in Haiti, including one involving a 12-year-old child.
“In 2025, the United Nations received four allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse involving personnel from multinational security assistance missions in Haiti,” the report said.
“All allegations were found to be substantiated by an investigation conducted by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.”
Three of the victims were children and were allegedly raped. The fourth alleged sexual assault victim was 18 years old.
The UN report said the cases were referred to the MSS and its successor, the Gang Suppression Force (GSF), for “appropriate investigation and remedial action.” CNN has reached out to an MSS spokesperson for comment.
The MSS transitioned into the GSF last year and was given a broader mandate to fight domestic insurgents. The news came days after Chadian soldiers belonging to the GSF arrived in the country on Wednesday.
The allegations were first reported by the Haitian newspaper Aibo Post.
Stéphane Dujarric, a spokesman for the UN Secretary-General, told CNN that the report had been “shared with anti-gang forces,” stressing that the mission was not under UN oversight.
“Four cases is too many,” William O’Neill, the designated expert on Haiti for the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, told CNN.
“There must be an independent investigation and, if there is evidence, charges must be brought. Maximum transparency and impunity must be tolerated. And justice must be given to the victims,” he said.
The document indicates that all four incidents were investigated by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), and the incident involving a 12-year-old boy was investigated internally by the MSS.
The report adds yet another bitter comment to the MSS mandate, which struggled for a year to support local police responses to the gang violence epidemic before ending in October 2025.
Haiti plunged into crisis in 2021 after mercenaries assassinated President Jovenel Moïse. Since then, the gang has taken control of much of the capital, Port-au-Prince, leading then-Prime Minister Ariel Henry to request international military assistance in 2022.
The MSS mission was widely perceived as a failure due to lack of funding and personnel. Gangs continue to kidnap, kill, and displace Haitian civilians. In the first five months of 2024, 2,680 people have been killed and more than 1.3 million people have been forced to flee their homes, according to UN Human Rights Representative Volker Turk.
“Nothing has changed,” said Reginald Fisueme, a Haitian doctor at Zanmi Lasante, Haiti’s largest non-governmental health provider. The group’s violence forced the closure of several hospitals. Gangs control key supply routes and disrupt access to medicines and equipment.
This report is not the first instance of misconduct against international peacekeepers in Haiti. CNN previously reported that UN peacekeepers sent to Haiti in the wake of the devastating 2010 earthquake fathered and abandoned dozens of children with Haitian women.
