SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico >> U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said he would request that the United Nations assumes funding for the structural and logistical expenses of a multinational force in Haiti that is struggling to fight violent gangs.

Guterres made the announcement late Wednesday in Barbados, where leaders of a 15-member Caribbean trade bloc known as Caricom gathered for a three-day conference to tackle regional issues, including gang violence in Haiti.

“If the Security Council will accept this proposal, we will have the conditions to finally have an effective force to defeat the gangs in Haiti and create the conditions for democracy to thrive,” Guterres said.

He added that the salaries for the multinational force would be paid through an already existing trust fund.

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the proposed support would include logistics and non-lethal equipment, adding that he expects a detailed plan to be submitted by the end of February.

“It will not be a peacekeeping mission. The structure would very likely stay the same,” he said of the current mission.

Dujarric added that Guterres has not changed his stance on considering a U.N. peacekeeping mission as a last resort.

The current U.N.-backed mission is led by a contingent of around 800 Kenyan police joined by soldiers and police from countries including Jamaica, Guatemala and El Salvador who are working alongside Haiti’s National Police.

Last year Haiti and the U.S. warned that the mission that began in June lacks personnel and resources and called for a U.N. peacekeeping mission to replace the current one.

In a statement Thursday, Haiti’s government said that its presidential adviser, Laurent Saint-Cyr, met with Guterres and repeated the country’s request for a U.N. peacekeeping force. It added that Haiti’s transitional presidential council “remains committed to resolving this crisis and moving towards constitutional reforms, the organization of general elections and responding to humanitarian needs.”

Under the Biden administration, the U.S. contributed some $600 million to the mission. It’s unclear if funding would continue under President Donald Trump, although U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio recently said the administration would keep supporting the mission as he urged wealthy nations to contribute more.

As the international community debates options to help Haiti, gangs in recent months have carried out at least four major massacres, killing hundreds of people. Guterres called the situation in Haiti “appalling.”

“Gangs are inflicting intolerable suffering on a desperate and frightened people,” he said. “We must keep working for a political process owned and led by the Haitians that restores democratic institutions through elections.”

But Belgium-based International Crisis Group warned in a new report that it could be dangerous to hold elections prematurely given a surge in gang violence.

Haiti is led by Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé and a nine-member transitional presidential council whose mandate expires on Feb. 7, 2026.

Haiti hasn’t held elections in almost a decade, and no president has been elected since the June 2021 assassination of Jovenel Moïse.