UN, US slap sanctions on Haiti gang leader and ex-security chief

The United Nations and U.S. on Friday announced fresh sanctions on a former Haitian palace security chief and the leader of a downtown Port-au-Prince gang, as the U.N. Security Council voted unanimously to renew its sanctions regime.



The sanctions target Bel Air gang leader Kempes Sanon and Dimitri Herard, who headed palace security at the time of President Jovenel Moise's 2021 assassination and escaped prison during a mass jailbreak last year.



Haitian police and gangs have been locked in a years-long conflict that has seen violent criminal groups take control of most of the capital and expand to other parts of the country, displacing over 1.3 million people and killing thousands.



The U.N. sanctions plan aims to, via travel bans, asset freezes, and an arms embargo, reduce the funding and firearms reaching Haitian gangs. However, illegal arms continue to flow into the Caribbean nation, largely via ports in Florida and its Dominican land border.