By Brendan Scanland
WASHINGTON, D.C. — According to the United Nations, over 2,500 Haitians have been killed or injured by gang violence during the first three months of 2024.
Most recently, a married couple from the U.S., serving as missionaries were killed in Haiti on Thursday as gang violence continues to wreak havoc on the country.
Over four million people face famine, and hundreds of thousands have been forcefully kicked out of their homes by gangs. Now some members of Congress want the U.S. to provide more assistance.
“We must act decisively and together,” said Congresswoman Stacey Plaskett (D- USVI), Delegate for the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Plaskett is urging the House Foreign Affairs Committee to lift the hold on a State Department request for $94 million for the Multinational Security Support (MSS) mission to Haiti.
“Congressional Republicans’ refusal to support this mission is a serious obstacle to restoring peace, security and democratic governance in Haiti. Haiti has a fighting chance to mitigate the chaos plunging and plaguing its communities, if we support the MSS mission now,” said Plaskett.
Plaskett and about 50 other members sent a letter to leaders of the House Foreign Affairs Committee outlining the urgent need to provide stability to Haiti and protect America’s national security.
Plaskett’s call for relief comes as roughly 1,000 Kenyan forces prepare to deploy to Haiti as part of the Multilateral Security Support mission, which aims to fight gang violence.
“We set out to find a partner or partners who would lead that effort that we would participate in, not with American forces, but with supplies and making sure they had what they need,” said President Biden during a state visit this week with the Kenyan President William Ruto.
The White House supports the deployment of Kenyan forces and said the U.S. will help with supplies, but not with troops.
“We have an elite police force that has done 40 peacekeeping missions around the world in the last 40 years. We know how to do this, and we’d like to try and help,” said Meg Whitman, the U.S. Ambassador to Kenya.
This week, the U.S. and Kenya celebrated their 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations.
