PLANS by the United States and Mexico to send an international military force to Haiti have caused a split at the United Nations and sparked calls from activists for non-intervention.

The chaos on the island prompted Haiti’s Foreign Minister Jean Victor Geneus to tell the UN security council that the Haitian people “are not living — they are suffering.”

He told diplomats on Monday that his country urgently needed “robust support” to help the authorities stem the humanitarian crisis, neutralise the criminal gangs on the island, guarantee fuel distribution and facilitate a return to normal life.