NEWS
Haiti: a UN-authorized “suppression force” against gangs half made of children
June 2026
The fact
On 30 September 2025 the UN Security Council adopted resolution 2793, transforming the Multinational Security Support mission (MSS, Kenyan-led, authorized in 2023 by resolution 2699) into a “Gang Suppression Force” of up to 5,550 personnel, mandated to conduct “counter-gang operations to neutralize, isolate and deter” the gangs. It is a UN-authorized force but not a UN operation; the United States was its main architect, and China, Russia and Pakistan abstained over concerns about rules of engagement, funding, oversight and accountability. The first contingents from Chad are expected in April 2026. On the ground, the Viv Ansanm gang coalition controls up to 90% of Port-au-Prince and is expanding into the Artibonite and Centre departments. The humanitarian crisis is among the world's gravest and least-funded: 6.4 million people — over half the population, including 2.8 million children — need assistance, and more than one Haitian in ten is displaced; by the end of 2025 the humanitarian response was only 24% funded. According to ACLED, more than 4,500 people were killed in 2025, among the highest tolls in the world; intentional homicides in Artibonite and Centre rose 210% between January and August 2025. Deaths from drone and air strikes rose 120% in the first quarter of 2026: according to the IRC and Médecins Sans Frontières, government forces and the private military company Vectus Global carried out drone strikes in residential areas, with civilian casualties.
Legal commentary
Here the law applies in three directions. Towards the gangs: the recruitment and use of minors in hostilities is prohibited by the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child (2000), which classifies it as a war crime, and abuses against civilians — killings, rapes, kidnappings — violate the Convention on the Rights of the Child itself and the principles of humanitarian law. Towards the Haitian State: the use of drones in inhabited areas tests the principle of distinction and the protection of civilians (Fourth Geneva Convention), and the High Commissioner for Human Rights has called the use of force “unnecessary or disproportionate,” with operations that “could be described as targeted killings.” Towards the UN-authorized force: resolution 2793 itself invokes respect for human rights and the protection of minors, but — according to Council sources — several States have criticized a US directive focused on “killing” gang members, in a country where, according to UN and UNICEF estimates, 30 to 50% of the fighters are minors. The sanctions regime and the arms embargo (resolution 2653) have so far hit very few individuals, while most of the weapons fuelling the gangs come from the United States.
Implications
This is the symmetry test pushed to its limit: the same standard must apply to those who commit the violence and to those who claim to come to stop it. A force named “suppression,” with a posture oriented towards the lethal use of force against an armed population half composed of minors, raises a question the law has always posed: a child with a rifle remains, in legal terms, first of all a victim to be protected and reintegrated, not a target — and UNICEF itself recalls that recruited minors must be treated first as children. And yet Haiti remains one of the planet's most forgotten crises, its humanitarian response funded at a quarter and its suffering off the radar. The law applies to those who shoot and to those who say they come to restore order, or it applies to no one.
Sources: UN News · Security Council Report · IRC · UNICEF