UN expands arms embargo on Haiti to all types of arms and ammunition

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously Friday to expand the arms embargo in Haiti to all types of weapons and ammunition, expressing grave concern at the extremely high levels of gang violence and criminal activities in the impoverished Caribbean nation.

The resolution authorizes the 193 U.N. member nations to take “appropriate steps to prevent the illicit trafficking and diversion of arms and related materiel in Haiti.” U.N. experts have said increasingly sophisticated weapons that end up in the hands of gang members and criminals are being trafficked from the U.S., especially from Florida.

The resolution also extends a travel ban and asset freeze on individuals on the U.N. sanctions blacklist for a year. In late September, the council committee monitoring sanctions on Haiti added two people to the list, which included five gang leaders.

One was Elan Luckson, leader of the Gran Grif gang, which killed at least 115 people in the town of Pont-Sondé in the Artibonite region next to the capital in early October in one of the biggest massacres in Haiti in recent history. The other was Victor Prophane, a former member of the Haitian parliament accused of being involved in arms trafficking.