US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday announced the United States intends to provide $200 million to the multinational security support mission in Haiti.
Blinken said that funding will go to support the Haitian national police “with planning, with intelligence, with airlift capacity, communications, and medical equipment and services.”
“We urge the international community to join us by contributing funding, contributing personnel, contributing equipment, contributing logistics, contributing training, to this mission,” he said at an event on the sidelines of the G20 Foreign Ministerial meeting in Rio de Janeiro.
Blinken called the situation in Haiti “one of the most urgent challenges we face as an international community.”
He said gangs control 80% of Port au Prince, and that they are using sexual assault and rape “to terrorize the population.”
Canada Pledges C$80.5 Million
Ottawa on Thursday announced C$123 million ($91 million) for Haiti, including C$80.5 million for the deployment of the multinational mission to support Haitian police combat criminal gangs.
Canada's support "will contribute to pave the way to more meaningful interventions to protect the people of Haiti and encourage Haitian-led efforts to restore peace and prosperity in the country," Foreign Minister Melanie Joly said in a statement.