Santo Domingo, DR (Le Floridien) — Framing Haiti’s turmoil as a regional security challenge rather than a distant humanitarian crisis, Dominican President Luis Abinader will use this month’s UN General Assembly to press for broader burden-sharing and a clearer path forward as the Multinational Security Support Mission (MSS) approaches a hard deadline.
Abinader, who plans to raise the issue in bilateral meetings alongside his UN address, argues that unchecked violence and institutional collapse in Haiti spill across borders—disrupting trade, straining migration systems, and testing public safety in neighboring states. His message: the cost of inaction doesn’t stop at Haiti’s shoreline, and neither should the response.
The timing is fraught. Kenyan President William Ruto has warned that the MSS mandate expires in October, urging the UN Security Council to orchestrate a “responsible transition.” Despite being authorized in 2023 and launched in 2024, the mission—about 1,000 personnel, mostly Kenyan—still lacks full funding to scale, raising the risk of a security vacuum if political attention wanes.
On the ground, the numbers tell a stark story. Gangs now control roughly 90% of Port-au-Prince and hold territory beyond the capital. UN data report 4,026 homicides in the first half of 2025, a 24% increase year over year, while 1.3 million people have been internally displaced. For the Dominican Republic, which shares the island, that violence translates into immediate pressures on border management, policing, and essential services.
What Abinader wants from New York is momentum: a concrete plan to prevent the mission’s lapse, coupled with predictable financing and a clearer division of labor among partners. That could include a short mandate bridge, a stepped-up funding compact, and commitments for logistics and specialized capabilities to back Haiti’s security forces against heavily armed groups.
Whether the Security Council can align around those steps before the October deadline will shape not only Haiti’s outlook but also the stability of the wider Caribbean—an outcome Abinader is determined to place at the top of the UN’s agenda.
