Blinken heads to Haiti to see headway against gangs

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken headed Thursday to violence-ravaged Haiti to evaluate progress in wresting control from gangs that have taken over much of the impoverished Caribbean nation.

Blinken, the highest-ranking US official to travel to the battered country since 2015, arrives two months after Kenya sent police officers to launch a long-awaited international force aimed at restoring order.

Blinken will meet members of a transitional council recently installed with regional support to fill a political vacuum in Haiti, which has not held elections since 2016, and acting Prime Minister Garry Connile.

The trip comes at a "crucial moment" for Haiti, said Brian Nichols, the top US diplomat for the Western Hemisphere.

Blinken "will reaffirm the United States' commitment to supporting the Haitian people and fostering a secure and peaceful Haiti," Nichols told reporters.

Blinken will also discuss ways to ensure a more consistent source of funding to the international force, known as the Multinational Security Support Mission.

President Joe Biden's administration has committed $360 million to the mission, including providing logistical support and equipment, but made clear it will not risk US troops.

Nichols said that the United States was willing to consider making the mission a formal UN peacekeeping operation if that is a way to bring a reliable source of money and people.

While blessed by the UN Security Council, the latest intervention in Haiti was deliberately not put under the UN flag after dark memories of earlier efforts.

The United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti, which deployed from 2004 to 2017, was tarnished by accusations of sexual abuse by peacekeepers and the force's accidental introduction of cholera, which killed some 10,000 people.

Haiti, the Western Hemisphere's poorest nation, has struggled for years with interlinked political, security and health crises.

Gangs in recent years have taken over some 80 percent of the capital Port-au-Prince as any semblance of government evaporated.

US officials say that the international force and the fledgling Haitian police have been able to step up patrols, starting to show at least some normality.

Blinken's high-security trip comes after a Haitian power plant that supplies Port-au-Prince went dark when demonstrators stormed it to protest recurring blackouts.