ACTIVISTS today slammed Monday’s decision by the United Nations to approve a multinational armed force, led by Kenya, to Haiti.

The move marks the first time in almost 20 years that a force would be deployed to the Caribbean nation.

The UN security council resolution, drafted by the United States and Ecuador, was approved with 13 votes in favour with abstentions from China and the Russian Federation.

The resolution gives the go-ahead for the force to be deployed for one year, with a review after nine months. 

The force would be funded by voluntary contributions, although the US has pledged up to $200 million (£165.4m) to support the operation.

The vote was held nearly a year after Haiti’s prime minister requested the immediate deployment of an armed force, which is expected to quell a surge in gang violence and restore security so Haiti can hold long-delayed elections. 

Haiti’s national police has struggled in its fight against gangs, with only about 10,000 active officers in a country of more than 11 million people.

“More than just a simple vote, this is in fact an expression of solidarity with a population in distress,” said Haiti’s Foreign Affairs Minister Jean Victor Geneus.

“It’s a glimmer of hope for the people who have been suffering for too long.”

But journalist Ben Norton said: “The so-called ‘multinational security support mission’ in Haiti is not an actual UN mission. It is a US military intervention, using the UN and Kenya as cover.” 

He said: “The US wrote the UN resolution. The US is overseeing the operation. The Defence Department is funding it.”

Breakthrough News host Eugene Puryear said: “Every invasion of Haiti is sold as helping to quell ‘chaos.’ 

“Each time it just strengthens the neocolonial elite and the associated exploitation by Western companies.

“This one will be no different. Shame on [Kenyan] President [William] Ruto for trying to use pan-Africanism to cover for imperialism.”

Executive director of the New York-based People’s Forum Manolo De Los Santos said: “The UN security council shamelessly whitewashes the US government’s imperialist plan to military intervene in Haiti. 

He added: “Kenya is complicit, supplying foreign troops that will unlawfully occupy Haiti. China and Russia were the only ones to stand against this atrocious resolution.”

Kawsachun News editor Camilla Escalante said that the decision of the security council was the latest example of how the UN system has been used “to achieve imperialist objectives and to violate the self-determination of peoples.”