Haiti is introducing new foreign-made boots to the country. The goal seems simple. It’s about fighting the gangs that have brought life to a standstill.
But the violence-plagued country has been here before, and Haitians are understandably wondering if the outcome will be any different this time.
This latest effort, a UN-backed multinational operation known as the Gang Suppression Force (GSF), will take over in April where its Kenya-led predecessor, Multinational Security Support (MSS), left off.
The year-long Kenyan-led mission, which ended last October in what was widely seen as a failure, is expected to benefit from a five-fold increase in troops this time around (5,500 expected) and what US Ambassador Mike Walz called an “intensified mission” to go after the gang.
It is also hoped that the new force will benefit from UN-backed logistics support through the UN Support Office in Haiti, largely avoiding the funding shortfalls of its predecessor, which relied almost entirely on voluntary funding from member states.
However, questions remain regarding its composition and funding. The GSF will be overseen by a “standing partner group” that includes the United States, Canada, El Salvador, Guatemala, Jamaica, Kenya and the Bahamas, but it remains unclear whether these countries themselves will send troops (and if so, how many). According to Reuters, Chad, Benin and Bangladesh are among the countries that have pledged to send troops, but none have so far sent troops. It will also continue to rely, at least in part, on voluntary financial contributions, including the payment of staff salaries.
And with gangs still controlling vast swathes of territory, including the Caribbean country’s main supply routes, it remains uncertain whether the latest mission will indeed deliver on its promise to learn from past mistakes, and if so, at what cost.
Haiti, a country of about 11 million people, has long struggled with gang violence, but recent problems reached a climax in 2021, when President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated by a group of more than 20 mercenaries who swarmed his compound and shot him 12 times.
Although there is still debate over who exactly ordered the attack, there is no dispute that the resulting power vacuum was exploited by the country’s already powerful gangs. They seized the opportunity to expand their control by attacking civilians, blockading ports, and closing airports. Within three years, gangs controlled 85% of the capital, Port-au-Prince.
On October 7, 2022, as the country of Haiti was ravaged by violence, economic collapse, fuel crisis, and COVID-19, then Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry requested international military assistance.
After delays due to lack of equipment, by the time Kenya-led forces arrived in 2024, their work had been reduced.
Haiti’s then-interim Prime Minister Garry Coniel told CNN that Port-au-Prince was ruled by gangs, with millions living in fear of violence and more than 500,000 people forced to flee their homes.
Despite the presence of the MSS, the gang continued to launch large-scale attacks. In the first five months of 2024, 2,680 people were killed and more than 300 were kidnapped for ransom, according to UN Human Rights Director Volker Turk.
Sexual abuse and child recruitment by gangs continues, with nearly 1.3 million people forced to live in displacement, an increase of 24% from six months ago.
Experts say the mission never stood a chance. Lack of personnel, funding, and equipment severely limited what they hoped to accomplish.
“Nothing has changed,” said Reginald Fisueme, a Haitian doctor at Zanmi Lasante, Haiti’s largest non-governmental health provider.
Several of the group’s hospitals have been closed due to the violence, including a high-end facility in Mille Valley, northeast of the capital, which treated more than 185,000 patients in the region.
Fils-Aime said supply routes and main roads connecting Port-au-Prince with other cities remain controlled by gangs, making access to vital medicines and equipment difficult.
Meanwhile, World Central Kitchen has been forced to temporarily close some of its community kitchens around the country, but it still operates 26 kitchens in the Artibonite department and is providing thousands of meals to displaced Haitians, according to response director John Torpey.
Experts say the gangs have always had an advantage over the MSS, allowing them to take advantage of the fight while the Kenyan-led forces struggled to catch up with limited resources and manpower.
“(MSS) was acting as a rapid response force,” said Diego Da Rin, Haiti analyst at International Crisis Group. “They were just reacting and kind of putting out fires that gangs were lighting on several fronts at the same time.”
It is hoped that the expanded powers of the GSF, which operates independently of the Haitian police, will enable it to fight gangs. Previously, the MSS was primarily a support force for the Haitian National Police.
But that broad obligation also comes with human rights concerns.
More aggressive operations mean an increased risk of harm to civilians, especially in close quarters combat in densely populated areas, Da Lin said.
“Gangs have shown that they are always ready to use civilians as human shields,” he noted.
It is unclear whether the new force will have a detailed code of conduct, although human rights groups say clear safeguards need to be in place.
“I know they’re still working on it, but it’s a little too late,” said Natalie Cotlino, a senior researcher at Human Rights Watch.
Amnesty International’s Johanna Silano Pelaez said it was particularly important that GSF troops were trained in gender-based violence and child protection. Many Haitian gangs rely heavily on child recruits, and the number of recruits has tripled in just one year, according to the United Nations.
She was also concerned about how countries contributing to the GSF select their troops. “We don’t know how the vetting process works,” Pelaez said.
Given the experience of its predecessors, another question facing the GSF is how prepared local forces will be to take over when its mission ends.
Today, Haiti’s gangs are not what they were decades ago, experts say. They were once concentrated in a small number of slums around the country and operated as paramilitary organizations of senior authorities, politicians, and businessmen. Now they are more independent and have their own goals. They control checkpoints and routes for supplying illegal weapons, which can be financed through extortion.
Whether the GSF is up to the task will become clear in the coming months.
“I have hope,” Fils-Eme said. “Of course, I’m cautious.”
