US waives aid ban to boost Haiti mission

The United States said Wednesday it was making an exemption in President Donald Trump's aid freeze to support a security mission in troubled Haiti, although some assistance was put on hold.

The announcement came as Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrived in the neighboring Dominican Republic where he will discuss Haiti, a major source of migration that Trump wants to stop.

Rubio greenlighted $40.7 million in foreign assistance to benefit the Haitian National Police and the Multinational Security Support mission, a State Department spokesperson said.

"The United States has not paused all assistance for the Multinational Security Support mission in Haiti," the spokesperson said.

The United Nations said Tuesday that the United States had notified it that it was pausing a contribution of $13.3 million in pending aid.

The State Department did not deny the pause but said it was a fraction of the total US contribution.

The United States went ahead with a delivery on Tuesday of heavy armored equipment for the Kenyan-led mission and the police, according to the State Department.

Former president Joe Biden's administration worked to establish the international force as part of efforts aimed at bringing stability to Haiti, where gangs had taken over much of the capital Port-au-Prince.

The Biden administration offered financing and logistical support but not to send troops, with Kenya taking the lead.

Trump, on taking over, has moved to slash US funding and has given orders to shutter the operations of the government's main aid agency, USAID.

- Focus on migration

Rubio on his first trip has been seeking to advance Trump's goal of stopping migration and sending back undocumented people.

El Salvador, Guatemala and Panama all offered to boost cooperation on migration on Rubio's previous stops.

Rubio will meet Thursday with Dominican Republic President Luis Abinader, who has championed a Trump-style hard line on Haitian migrants, starting work on a wall and ramping up deportations.

In late January, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that Haiti's capital could become overrun by gangs if the international community did not step up aid to the security mission.

Haiti's Foreign Minister Jean-Victor Harvel Jean-Baptiste, speaking at a meeting of the UN Security Council, has said the country faced "major difficulties" that threaten not just the population but also "the very survival of the state."

Just under 800 of the 2,500 security personnel hoped for have been deployed.

Haiti has no president or parliament and is ruled by a transitional body, which is struggling to manage extreme violence linked to criminal gangs, poverty and other challenges.

More than 5,600 people were killed in Haiti last year as a result of gang violence, about a thousand more than in 2023, the UN said.

More than a million Haitians have been forced to flee their homes, three times as many as a year ago.