SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Canada will ship navy vessels to Haiti for intelligence-gathering as a part of efforts to quell worsening gang violence within the Caribbean nation, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau introduced Thursday.

Trudeau made the announcement within the Bahamas at an annual assembly of Caribbean leaders the place a key matter has been Haiti’s surge in killings, rapes and kidnappings blamed on gangs emboldened because the July 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse.

Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry, additionally on the assembly, has pleaded for a full-fledged worldwide army intervention to stem the mayhem. His nation requested assist from the U.N. Safety Council in October, and has urged the U.S. and Canada lead a drive. No such intervention has come collectively, and neither nation has supplied to take the lead.

Canada’s transfer to ship ships, introduced on the assembly of leaders of the 15-member Caricom commerce bloc, comes shortly after the return of one in all its surveillance planes on an analogous mission to gather intelligence for Haitian police.

“Proper now, Haiti is confronted with unrelenting gang violence, political turmoil and corruption,” Trudeau stated. “Now could be the second to return collectively to confront the severity of this example.”

Trudeau stated Canada and Haiti’s neighbors have to work on long-lasting options to revive order and safety, enable for important help to circulation and create the situations at no cost and honest elections.

The Canadian chief additionally introduced his authorities would give an extra $12.3 million in humanitarian help and $10 million to assist the Worldwide Workplace on Migration, to guard Haitian ladies and kids alongside Haiti’s border with the Dominican Republic. The neighboring nation has deported tens of 1000’s of Haitian migrants and people of Haitian ancestry previously 12 months.

“The toll of human struggling in Haiti weighs closely on me,” Trudeau stated.

Earlier on Thursday, Trudeau met behind closed doorways with Henry, who instructed reporters that he urgently desires Haiti to carry elections regardless of the worsening insecurity.

The variety of reported killings in Haiti final 12 months elevated by 35% to 2,183 victims, whereas the variety of reported kidnappings greater than doubled to 1,359 victims, in line with the U.N.

A report final month from the U.N. Built-in Workplace in Haiti famous that “gang-related violence reached ranges not seen in a long time,” and that tens of 1000’s of individuals have been displaced by the warring gangs.

Canada, the U.S. and different international locations have already got supplied army tools and different sources, together with coaching, to Haiti’s Nationwide Police, which solely has 9,700 active-duty officers for a rustic of greater than 11 million folks. Gangs management an estimated 60% of the capital of Port-au-Prince.

Trudeau additionally pledged $1.8 million to combat unlawful drug trafficking and strengthen border and maritime safety throughout the Caribbean.

As well as, Trudeau stated his authorities will put aside $44.8 million to assist the Caribbean combat local weather change.

The Caricom assembly, which has drawn different officers together with Brian Nichols, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, started on Wednesday and is scheduled to finish on Friday.