Special representative named for US backed-Gang Suppression Force in Haiti

A longtime United Nations expert on peace building who has worked in some of the world’s most complex security environments, has been named the special representative for the newly authorized, but not yet fully deployed, Gang Suppression Force in Haiti.

Jack Christofides was named by the group of countries tasked with overseeing the U.S.-backed force. Known as the Standing Group of Partners, they include the United States, Canada, El Salvador, Guatemala, Jamaica, The Bahamas and Kenya, which is led by Force Commander Godfrey Otunge.

In a release, Otunge said Christofides, who has worked throughout the U.N. peacekeeping system, “brings experience in political affairs, peace-building and operational leadership, which will be instrumental in guiding the GSF’s efforts to address Haiti’s security crisis and lay the groundwork for sustainable peace.”

Most recently, Christofides served as director of the Departments of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs and Peace Operations, Northern Africa Division, in New York. From 2020 to 2023, he was deputy head of mission and director of political & civil affairs for the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), where he played a key role in advancing stability and political dialogue in a challenging context.

His previous roles include director of the Africa II Division in the Department of Peacekeeping Operations, and director of Policy, Evaluation, and Training in the Departments of Peacekeeping Operations and Field Support.

The GSF’s mission is to restore state authority and public order, reduce gang territorial control, secure critical infrastructure, and support the Haitian people as they work toward a return to elected governance and long-term stability.

In late September, the U.N. Security Council authorized the deployment of the new international force to replace the struggling Kenya-led Multinational Security Support mission, to restore state authority and public order, reduce gang territorial control, secure critical infrastructure, and support the Haitian people as they work toward a return to elected governance and long-term stability. But months after the vote, there remains a lack of clarity over its funding, full deployment or where the envisioned 5,500 mostly military personnel will come from.

A pledging conference, organized by the U.S. and hosted by Canada, is schedule to take place in New York in the coming days with a new Haiti Support Office to help finance the logistics of the force not scheduled to be operational until the Spring.

Meanwhile, countries are engaged in ongoing negotiations over the force’s concept of operations, which has triggered concerns over the military focused of the force given the large number of children and youth who make up Haitian gangs.

Both in international circles and in Haiti, some are insisting that the focus on the new force can’t solely be about killing gang members. The GSF’s mission also needs to ensure a localized strategy for non-military actions so that real peace building can finally happen in Haiti, some are insisting.

Still, it remains to be seen as the force’s concept of operations remains a point of contention among perspective partners, and Washington pushes for elections in an environment where over 1.4 million remain internally displaced and gangs reach into rural communities are growing seemingly every day.

Over the weekend, armed gangs attacked Pont-Sondé, a rural town in central Haiti in the Lower Artibonite, forcing thousands to flee burning homes. At least 10 people are confirmed dead, local authorities said, cautioning that the situation remains volatile, and they cannot yet say definitely say what the toll is.

The attacks are prompting frustrations with community leaders, who say they’ve pleaded for drones and other reinforcements to no available, leaving them vulnerable to the Gran Grif gang’s continued attacks.

In addition to Pont-Sondé, gangs are also entrenched on the outskirts of Arcahaie the town where Haiti’s flag was founded, the town’s mayor Wilner Rene said Tuesday during an interview on Port-au-Prince based Magik 9 radio station.

“It’s a situation that’s been developing for the last 15 days,” he said, detailing how the farming community is currently surrounded by allies of the Viv Ansanm gang coalition that now controls Mountrouis, once home to the Caribbean’s first Club Med and luxury beachfront homes of the country’s wealthy, to the north of Arcahaie and Cabaret to its south.

“The gangs have burned homes, killed people,” he said, confirming reports that gangs recently set fire to a truck carrying fuel in the town of Bercy, located between the Arcahaie and Cabaret off the National Road #1 that connects the capital to the north. Among the dead was a specialized agent with the Haiti National Police.

Though the Haiti National Police and self-defense brigades remain on alert, they lack the ability to give an effective response. If they had the means, he said, “the gangs would have already been pushed back.”

“We are launching an SOS to the police and the central authorities to take their responsibility and unblock National Road #1,” he said, “because this allows these guys in Cabaret to always threaten the people of Arcahaie. Dislodge them.”