The UN Security Council asked Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Friday to come up with options to help combat Haiti’s armed gangs, including a possible peacekeeping force and a non-UN multinational force.
A resolution adopted unanimously by the council asks Mr Guterres to report back on “a full range” of options within 30 days to improve the security situation, including additional training for the Haitian National Police and providing support to combat illegal arms trafficking to the impoverished Caribbean nation.
It also authorises up to 70 UN police and corrections advisers to scale up support and training for Haiti’s understaffed and underfunded national police force.
And it “encourages” countries, especially in the Caribbean region, to respond to appeals from Haiti’s Prime Minister and from Mr Guterres for the deployment of an international specialised force.
Haiti’s Prime Minister Ariel Henry sent an urgent appeal last October for “the immediate deployment of a specialised armed force, in sufficient quantity” to stop the gangs.
However, more than eight months later no country has stepped up to lead such a force.
Mr Guterres, who visited Haiti earlier this month, called last week for a robust international force to help the Haitian National Police “defeat and dismantle the gangs”.
He said the estimate by the UN independent expert for Haiti, William O’Neill, who said up to 2,000 additional anti-gang police officers are needed is no exaggeration.
Mr O’Neill, who concluded a 10-day trip to Haiti this month, is an American lawyer who has been working on Haitian issues for more than 30 years and helped establish the Haitian National Police in 1995.
The gangs have grown in power since the July 7, 2021, assassination of President Jovenel Moise and are now estimated to control up to 80 per cent of the capital.
A surge in killings, rapes and kidnappings has led to a violent uprising by civilian vigilante groups.
Compounding the gang warfare is the country’s political crisis: Haiti was stripped of all democratically elected institutions when the terms of the country’s remaining 10 senators expired in early January.
The resolution, co-sponsored by the US and Ecuador, “strongly urges” all countries to prohibit the supply, sale or transfer of weapons to anyone supporting gang violence and criminal activities.
Red flags
- Promises of high, fixed or 'guaranteed' returns.
- Unregulated structured products or complex investments often used to bypass traditional safeguards.
- Lack of clear information, vague language, no access to audited financials.
- Overseas companies targeting investors in other jurisdictions - this can make legal recovery difficult.
- Hard-selling tactics - creating urgency, offering 'exclusive' deals.
Courtesy: Carol Glynn, founder of Conscious Finance Coaching
UAE rugby in numbers
5 - Year sponsorship deal between Hesco and Jebel Ali Dragons
700 - Dubai Hurricanes had more than 700 playing members last season between their mini and youth, men's and women's teams
Dh600,000 - Dubai Exiles' budget for pitch and court hire next season, for their rugby, netball and cricket teams
Dh1.8m - Dubai Hurricanes' overall budget for next season
Dh2.8m - Dubai Exiles’ overall budget for next season
More on Quran memorisation:
Small Victories: The True Story of Faith No More by Adrian Harte
Jawbone Press
The five pillars of Islam
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The biog
Age: 59
From: Giza Governorate, Egypt
Family: A daughter, two sons and wife
Favourite tree: Ghaf
Runner up favourite tree: Frankincense
Favourite place on Sir Bani Yas Island: “I love all of Sir Bani Yas. Every spot of Sir Bani Yas, I love it.”
Jewel of the Expo 2020
252 projectors installed on Al Wasl dome
13.6km of steel used in the structure that makes it equal in length to 16 Burj Khalifas
550 tonnes of moulded steel were raised last year to cap the dome
724,000 cubic metres is the space it encloses
Stands taller than the leaning tower of Pisa
Steel trellis dome is one of the largest single structures on site
The size of 16 tennis courts and weighs as much as 500 elephants
Al Wasl means connection in Arabic
World’s largest 360-degree projection surface
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
