Haiti needs help from nations within its hemisphere, not more Band-Aid policies | Opinion

The United States’ proposition to support the deployment of a Kenyan police force to Haiti, amid the current upheaval, has provoked a lot of debate. This initiative, approved by the U.N. Security Council in 2023 and aimed at addressing the severe security crisis in a gang-infested country, has met with skepticism from various sectors.

The cultural and linguistic differences between Kenya and Haiti are only a few of the challenges of such an intervention — especially when the number of police officers committed to the mission is vastly inferior to what Haiti requires, and their skills may not be suited for urban warfare.

A commitment of 1,000 Kenyan police officers may start out with only 400, scaling up after that, with a projected cost of $200 million a year. How will that plan help enough when there are over 300 gangs spread throughout the country and over 8,000 reported gang members in Port-au-Prince alone?

In 2009, when the situation was nowhere close to the chaos of recent times, Haiti had 9,500 Haitian police officers working alongside 9,123 UN mission military and police. Today, the local police force that had reached 14,000 in 2017 is down to 9,000 active police officers.

Influential nations professing to assist Haiti have supported ineffective governance structures in the name of stability. Numerous efforts by Haitian political parties and civil society to find alternatives — after the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse — were overlooked.

The administrations of late President Moïse and Prime Minister Ariel Henry failed to tackle the security crisis, leaving the populace exposed and vulnerable. The underlying ills of Haiti remain unaddressed. At the heart of the crisis is the rise of gangs that have taken control over 95% of the capital, blocking off the rest of the country through violence, extortion, murder and rape.

With Henry’s replacement imminent, gangs have launched a renewed terror campaign to demonstrate their power, rebranding themselves as revolutionaries in order to be invited to the negotiating table and obtain amnesty.

As Haiti descends further into anarchy, the human toll of inaction is increasingly dire. What remains of “the government” has endeavored to shift blame to the weakened private sector using identity politics. Historical class resentment, propagated by gang leaders and radical groups, has been a tactic to further deflect responsibility.

The international community must weigh the immediate needs for security against the long-term objectives of stability for the region. Haiti may not be deemed of interest in terms of its economic contribution to world markets, but it certainly is in terms of disruptive capacity. Assistance must be committed and nuanced.

If the objective is to halt the killing, contain criminal activities, ensure humanitarian support and prepare for fair elections, an intervention is the only sensible path forward. Steps include:

▪ Contain the violence. Establish zero-tolerance zones in critical areas like airports, ports, food warehouses and hospitals, a starting point to push gangs back.

▪ Accept the new presidential council. While Haitians resent the fact that council is an international initiative under CARICOM, there is no other viable option.

▪ Work toward transparent and inclusive elections. Elections are key in restoring faith in the merits of democratic processes.

▪ Build security capacity. Recruit and train many more police.

▪ Reinforce the new government, when elected.

Haitians are tired of the bloodshed. No matter how we got here, we have become a failed state, with consequences beyond our borders, requiring global awareness and regional security assistance to fight gang takeover.

For reasons noted earlier, a Kenyan-led effort, assuming it is still an option, is not the answer. Haiti requires immediate support from nations within its hemisphere, countries that possess the appropriate background and resources to make a meaningful impact.

Prioritizing security, governance, democratic integrity and economic development in a country so close to Florida is not impossible. We must end Band-Aid policies that are just enough to keep Haiti on life support, but never enough to afford it a chance to get better.

Elisa Philippon Saieh is an administrator at Superior Housing Development Corp (SHODECOSA) in Port-Au-Prince.