UNITED NATIONS, Jan 28, CMC – The UN Support Office in Haiti remains on track to meet the timelines established by the Security Council to provide logistical and operational support to the Gang Suppression Force (GSF) by the end of March this year, Stéphane Dujarric, the United Nations spokesperson said on Wednesday.
He told the daily briefing that it will also be providing mission support services to the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH) by February 1 this year.
Dujarric providing details on the efforts by the Department of Operational Support (DOS) to establish and operationalise the UN Support Office in Haiti (UNSOH), said that the UN Security Council, had requested the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to establish the Support Office to provide logistical support to the GSF within six months of its adoption.
“I can tell you that the interim Director of this office, the Director of Mission Support, our colleague Stephen McOwan, has been selected, and he arrived in Port-au-Prince over the weekend,” Dujarric said , adding that he has joined about 37 staff of the UN Support Office, who are already deployed in the Haitian capital.
Dujarric said that the second office, located in Santo Domingo, in the Dominican Republic, was established last week.
He said this office provides transactional human resources, finance and travel services to both the Support Office and BINUH, adding “currently, we have 15 staff stationed in Santo Domingo setting up these services.
“With the cooperation of the government of the Dominican Republic, the country was also designated as a medical evacuation destination, should we need it. We are expecting additional colleagues to arrive in Haiti and the Dominican Republic through the end February 2026,” Dujarric added.
He said since the adoption of the Security Council resolution establishing the UN Support Office for Haiti, “our colleagues have signed a land use agreement with the government of Haiti for the occupancy of land and premises of the Support Office’s civilian footprint.
“The first air asset from the mission, which is a helicopter, is now in Port-au-Prince; and as you can imagine, this is an important step for our colleagues’ logistics and operational mobility,” Dujarric said, adding that more equipment is coming from the UN Logistics Base in Brindisi, and another shipment has also been confirmed from Baghdad to Port-au-Prince, which includes equipment coming from now closed UNAMI mission in Baghdad.
“On that front, we are particularly grateful to the government of Iraq in expediting approvals for this, as their contribution to the maintenance of international peace and security,” Dujarric added.
Earlier this week, it was disclosed that the first contingents of the GSF are expected to arrive on the French-speaking Caribbean Community (CARICOM) country in April.
GSF Special Representative Jack Christofides, who made the disclosure following a meeting with the Dominican Republic Foreign Minister, Roberto Álvarez, said he plans to visit Santo Domingo once he formally assumes his post in Haiti in February.
Christofides, who currently holds a senior post in the UN’s peace operations, was named by the group of countries, Known as the Standing Group of Partners and include the United States, Canada, El Salvador, Guatemala, Jamaica, The Bahamas and Kenya, said the deployment is expected to be completed by October 2026.
The GSF’s mission is to restore state authority and public order, reduce gang territorial control, secure critical infrastructure, and support the Haitian people as they work toward a return to elected governance and long-term stability.
Last September, the UN Security Council authorised the deployment of the new international force to replace the struggling Kenya-led Multinational Security Support (MSS) mission, to restore state authority and public order, reduce gang territorial control, secure critical infrastructure, and support the Haitian people as they work toward a return to elected governance and long-term stability.
CMC/aj/ir/2026