PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations announced $60 million in additional humanitarian assistance to Haiti during a trip Monday to the troubled Caribbean country.
Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield also said the U.S. Defense Department would provide a “substantial increase” in mine-resistant vehicles to a U.N.-backed, multinational security mission led by Kenya to help Haiti’s national police combat widespread gang violence.
Click to Gallery
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations announced $60 million in additional humanitarian assistance to Haiti during a trip Monday to the troubled Caribbean country.
Godfrey Otunga, Kenyan head of a UN-backed multinational police force, right, speaks to the new Haitian Chief of Police Rameau Normil as they wait for the arrival of U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield at their base in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday, July 22, 2024. (Roberto Schmidt/Pool Photo via AP)
Kenyan police part of a UN-backed multinational force stand in formation at their base during a visit by U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday, July 22, 2024. (Roberto Schmidt/Pool Photo via AP)
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, second from right, shakes hands with a Kenyan police officer part of a UN-backed multinational force during a visit to their base near the airport in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday, July 22, 2024. (Roberto Schmidt/Pool Photo via AP)
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield speaks during a press conference at the Toussaint Louverture International Airport in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday, July 22, 2024. (Roberto Schmidt/Pool Photo via AP)
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, left, greets doctors and nurses part of a U.N.-backed, multinational security mission at their base in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday, July 22, 2024. (Roberto Schmidt/Pool Photo via AP)
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield speaks during a press conference at the Toussaint Louverture International Airport in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday, July 22, 2024. (Roberto Schmidt/Pool Photo via AP)
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, right, Godfrey Otunga, Kenyan head of UN-backed multinational force, second from right, and Haitian Police Chief Normil Rameau attend a welcome demonstration from Kenyan police at their base in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday, July 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph)
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, top, center left, and U.S. Ambassador to Haiti Dennis Jankins, top, center right, meet with Haitian members of civil society at the U.S. embassy in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday, July 22, 2024. (Roberto Schmidt/Pool via AP)
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield speaks with Haitian members of civil society at the U.S. embassy in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday, July 22, 2024. (Roberto Schmidt/Pool via AP)
U.S. Assistant Secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs Brian Nichols, right, holds out a cell phone to take a photo with, from right, Haitian Prime Minister Garry Conille, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield and Haitian Foreign Minister Dominque Dupuy before they meet with the Haitian Transitional Presidential Council at the Villa d'Accueil in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday, July 22, 2024. (Roberto Schmidt/Pool via AP)
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, front left, walks on the tarmac with Haitian Foreign Minister Dominique Dupuy, partially covered, after landing at Toussaint L'Overture International airport in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday, July 22, 2024. (Roberto Schmidt/Pool via AP)
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, top right, shakes hands with Edgard Leblanc Fils, head of the Haitian Transitional Presidential Council, after a meeting at the Villa d'Accueil in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday, July 22, 2024. (Roberto Schmidt/Pool via AP)
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, fourth from right, poses for photos after meeting with members of Haiti's Transitional Presidential Council, left side of table, at the Villa d'Accueil in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday, July 22, 2024. (Roberto Schmidt/Pool via AP)
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, center, shakes hands with Haitian Prime Minister Garry Conille as they gather for a group photo with the Transitional Presidential Council after a meeting at the Villa d'Accueil in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday, July 22, 2024. (Roberto Schmidt/Pool via AP)
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, waves upon arrival in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday, July 22, 2024. Thomas-Greenfield is scheduled to hold talks with the country's transitional presidential council and new Prime Minister Garry Conille during the day-long trip. (Roberto Schmidt/Pool via AP)
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, second right, steps off a U.S. Air Force plane upon arrival in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday, July 22, 2024. Thomas-Greenfield is scheduled to hold talks with the country's transitional presidential council and new Prime Minister Garry Conille during the day-long trip. (Roberto Schmidt/Pool via AP)
The announcement came nearly a week after a second Kenyan contingent of 200 police officers arrived in Haiti, following the first contingent of 200 officers last month.
“We know that progress isn’t lineal. There will be inevitable setbacks and stumbling blocks, and yet this mission has opened a door to progress,” Thomas-Greenfield said.
She said the USAID assistance, which now totals more than $165 million this fiscal year, would fill gaps in nutrition, food security and shelter; improve water and sanitation services; and provide Haitians with cash to buy basic goods.
Earlier Monday, Thomas-Greenfield met with Kenyan police and leaders of Haiti's new transitional government as part of a one-day visit to encourage action on Haiti's humanitarian crisis and political reform leading to democratic elections that have yet to be scheduled.
“This isn’t a naïve sense of hope, but I do have a sense of hope. This has been a remarkable day on the ground,” she said.
There has been wide international support for the new transitional government led by Prime Minister Garry Conille, a former U.N. development specialist who assumed the post in early June. Earlier this month, he told the U.N. Security Council that the Kenyan police will be crucial to helping control the country’s gangs and moving toward democratic elections.
Gangs have grown in power since the July 7, 2021, assassination of President Jovenel Moïse and are now estimated to control up to 80% of the capital and surrounding areas. A surge in killings, rapes and kidnappings has led to a violent uprising by civilian vigilante groups.
According to U.N. agencies, the violence has displaced 580,000 people, more than half of whom are children, and resulted in 4 million people facing food insecurity.
Haiti had asked for the immediate deployment of a foreign armed force to fight gangs in late 2022, and U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appealed for months for a country to lead the force before the Kenyans came forward.
The multinational force will eventually total 2,500 personnel from Kenya, the Bahamas, Bangladesh, Barbados, Benin, Chad and Jamaica. They will be deployed in phases at a cost of some $600 million a year, according to the U.N. Security Council.
The U.S. has provided over $300 million to the force, whose formation was supported by a U.N. resolution.
The Kenyan police will train the Haitian national police for joint security operations that have not yet begun, the official said.
Associated Press writer Jade Lozada at the United Nations contributed to this report.
Follow AP coverage of Haiti at https://apnews.com/hub/haiti
A Kenyan police officer part of a UN-backed multinational force stands next to a row of armored vehicles at their base during a visit by U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday, July 22, 2024. (Roberto Schmidt/Pool Photo via AP
Godfrey Otunga, Kenyan head of a UN-backed multinational police force, right, speaks to the new Haitian Chief of Police Rameau Normil as they wait for the arrival of U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield at their base in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday, July 22, 2024. (Roberto Schmidt/Pool Photo via AP)
Kenyan police part of a UN-backed multinational force stand in formation at their base during a visit by U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday, July 22, 2024. (Roberto Schmidt/Pool Photo via AP)
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, second from right, shakes hands with a Kenyan police officer part of a UN-backed multinational force during a visit to their base near the airport in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday, July 22, 2024. (Roberto Schmidt/Pool Photo via AP)
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield speaks during a press conference at the Toussaint Louverture International Airport in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday, July 22, 2024. (Roberto Schmidt/Pool Photo via AP)
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, left, greets doctors and nurses part of a U.N.-backed, multinational security mission at their base in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday, July 22, 2024. (Roberto Schmidt/Pool Photo via AP)
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield speaks during a press conference at the Toussaint Louverture International Airport in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday, July 22, 2024. (Roberto Schmidt/Pool Photo via AP)
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, right, Godfrey Otunga, Kenyan head of UN-backed multinational force, second from right, and Haitian Police Chief Normil Rameau attend a welcome demonstration from Kenyan police at their base in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday, July 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph)
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, top, center left, and U.S. Ambassador to Haiti Dennis Jankins, top, center right, meet with Haitian members of civil society at the U.S. embassy in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday, July 22, 2024. (Roberto Schmidt/Pool via AP)
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield speaks with Haitian members of civil society at the U.S. embassy in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday, July 22, 2024. (Roberto Schmidt/Pool via AP)
U.S. Assistant Secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs Brian Nichols, right, holds out a cell phone to take a photo with, from right, Haitian Prime Minister Garry Conille, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield and Haitian Foreign Minister Dominque Dupuy before they meet with the Haitian Transitional Presidential Council at the Villa d'Accueil in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday, July 22, 2024. (Roberto Schmidt/Pool via AP)
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, front left, walks on the tarmac with Haitian Foreign Minister Dominique Dupuy, partially covered, after landing at Toussaint L'Overture International airport in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday, July 22, 2024. (Roberto Schmidt/Pool via AP)
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, top right, shakes hands with Edgard Leblanc Fils, head of the Haitian Transitional Presidential Council, after a meeting at the Villa d'Accueil in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday, July 22, 2024. (Roberto Schmidt/Pool via AP)
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, fourth from right, poses for photos after meeting with members of Haiti's Transitional Presidential Council, left side of table, at the Villa d'Accueil in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday, July 22, 2024. (Roberto Schmidt/Pool via AP)
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, center, shakes hands with Haitian Prime Minister Garry Conille as they gather for a group photo with the Transitional Presidential Council after a meeting at the Villa d'Accueil in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday, July 22, 2024. (Roberto Schmidt/Pool via AP)
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, waves upon arrival in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday, July 22, 2024. Thomas-Greenfield is scheduled to hold talks with the country's transitional presidential council and new Prime Minister Garry Conille during the day-long trip. (Roberto Schmidt/Pool via AP)
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, second right, steps off a U.S. Air Force plane upon arrival in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday, July 22, 2024. Thomas-Greenfield is scheduled to hold talks with the country's transitional presidential council and new Prime Minister Garry Conille during the day-long trip. (Roberto Schmidt/Pool via AP)
