Foreign governments are being urged to make good on pledges to fund the armed Kenya-led security force in Haiti, where criminal armed groups continue spread misery and despair while controlling more than 80% of the capital.

“We call on all international partners to do more and give more,” said Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the United States’ ambassador to the United Nations during a Security Council meeting Wednesday. “The Haitian people deserve, at long last, to live in peace — to go to work, school, or a house of worship without the threat of violence.”

In all, Kenya has volunteered to deploy 1,000 of its specialized police officers to lead what is known as the Multinational Security Support mission. Six other mostly Caribbean and African nations are also supposed to send personnel. But the mission’s success and the size of its force very much depend on the contributions of the international community, which pledged $118 million in support but has so far only deposited $21 million in a United Nations trust fund.

The United States is by far the largest contributor, providing more than $309 million for equipment, training and construction of a base in Port-au-Prince.

While addressing the U.N. Security Council on the ongoing crisis, Thomas-Greenfield and others called for the international community to accelerate efforts to provide the country with the support it needs to build democratic institutions and to restore peace and stability amid alarming violence.

“Member states have to walk the talk when it comes to supporting the mission,” said Bob Rae, Canada’s ambassador to the U.N. said. “Let us all come to terms with one thing: Haitians like all of us, every single one of us, require security to be able to safely leave our homes without fear of being killed, kidnapped, or raped.”

Security force’s first steps

The first contingent of 200 Kenyan police officers arrived in Haiti last week and have been slowly taking to the streets on patrols. Though armed gangs did not make good on a threat to stop the deployment, they have tried to test the forces, temporarily taking over one police station before police regained control and then setting fire to another one. Both are located south of the capital, which has become off-limits to most Haitians.

María Isabel Salvador, the head of the United Nations Integrated Office in Port-au-Prince, known by its French acronym, BINUH, told the council the arrival of the specialized officers after months of delays is an important step and renews hope for the people of Haiti. However, with 3,252 murders recorded since January, including 20 police officers killed by armed gangs, Haiti remains in a vicious cycle of killing by armed gangs and so-called vigilante, self-defense groups.

“I remain deeply disturbed by indiscriminate violence and grave abuses perpetrated by armed gangs against children. Equally worrisome is the prevalence of threats and attacks against human rights defenders, journalists and members of the judiciary, many of whom have been forced to limit or stop their work, or even to flee the country,” she said.

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