Statement by the Special Representative of the Gang Suppression Force to the Security Council, 20 July 2026

Delivered to the Security Council on 20 July 2026 and published by the mission as delivered. Christofides briefs alongside SRSG Carlos Ruiz Massieu, Vanessa Frazier and Monica Juma, and reports that the first phase of the mission is in hand: headquarters, rules of engagement, early command-and-control and intelligence structures, a first forward operating base inside a strategic area, continuous patrol patterns, and the start of operations against gang infrastructure.

Three operations are described. On 21 June the GSF conducted a cordon, search and clear operation in Tabarre that led to apprehensions and the destruction of hundreds of Molotov cocktails, followed by mounted, dismounted, day and night patrols and bulldozers removing gang barricades. On 6 July the Force seized weapons and ammunition, reported them to the Security Council Panel of Experts and placed them in Haitian custody. In the week before the briefing, an operation in Delmas dismantled a cache of improvised incendiary devices while under fire. The concept of operations is described as deliberately incremental: concentrate resources in selected priority areas, establish persistent security, then expand.

On the institutional side, the statement records Status Protection Agreements for troop- and police-contributing countries and a handover agreement for the legal transfer of detainees, both concluded with the Government of Haiti; an accountability architecture of operational policies, mandatory induction training and civilian harm mitigation; compliance with the UN Human Rights Due Diligence Policy; and the inaugural GSF-UN HRDDP Dialogue Forum. It confirms that the strategy and benchmarks requested under resolution 2793 have been completed and submitted, distinguishing implementation of the mandate from the outcomes the mandate intended. The closing assessment is that the environment remains extremely challenging, that gangs are likely to adapt, that humanitarian needs continue to rise, and that political uncertainty is the most caustic variable affecting the mission's success.