A person hangs clothes to dry on a makeshift tent at a shelter for families displaced by gang violence in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Aug. 17. (AP-Yonhap)
A person hangs clothes to dry on a makeshift tent at a shelter for families displaced by gang violence in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Aug. 17. (AP-Yonhap)

A United Nations-backed armed force tasked with helping local police in Haiti to combat gangs will not be fully staffed by October as planned, its spokesperson said Tuesday.

Announced by the UN Security Council last year, the Gang Suppression Force was expected to ramp up between April and October to a planned capacity of 5,500 uniformed personnel and 50 civilian staff.

"We continue to receive new troops who will bolster the ranks," GSF spokesperson Igor Rugwiza told Radio Magik 9 in the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince, Tuesday.

But he said the goal of 5,500 members could not be achieved in such a short time due to "logistical constraints." He also declined to specify "for operational reasons" the number of troops already deployed to help neutralize the gangs that control a large part of the Haitian capital and several of the country's major roads.

Rugwiza said the delay in staffing the force would not prevent troops already deployed from doing their job.

Force members were in Tabarre, where Haiti's international airport is located; the Cite Soleil shantytown; downtown Port-au-Prince; and the Artibonite department north of the capital, he said.

"With the personnel already on the ground, we continue to expand our deployment zone and occupy a little more territory," he said.

Prominent Haitian human rights advocate Pierre Esperance gave a different assessment.

"We don't feel the presence of the GSF in Haiti. It is not yet operational. Criminals continue to operate and bring grief to the people," he said.

He criticized the slow pace of the deployment, saying it could impact the electoral process underway in Haiti.

The country is preparing to hold its first presidential and legislative election since 2016, as well as a referendum on the constitution, on Dec. 13.

But it will be impossible to organize elections if roads are still blocked by gangs, Esperance said.

The GSF replaced the Kenya-led Multinational Security Support mission, seen as under-equipped and under-funded.

It was intended to be more robust, but as of July comprised fewer than 1,000 personnel, from Chad, Mongolia, Jamaica, Guatemala, El Salvador and Sri Lanka. (AFP)