The U.S. government will provide further humanitarian aid to Haiti and armored vehicles to a multinational force tasked with helping Haitian police control gang violence, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield announced Monday during a visit of Port-au-Prince.

At the end of her short visit to the Haitian capital, Ms. Thomas-Greenfield announced the imminent availability of $60 million worth of humanitarian aid, mostly food, as more than 4 million residents of the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere experience acute food insecurity.

Washington also plans to deliver a “large number” of armored vehicles to the Kenyan-led multinational security support mission (MSF), whose deployment began in late June. The vehicles will be added to the 16 made available since the beginning of the year.

After months of waiting, the first contingent of Kenyan police officers arrived in Haiti in late June and began patrolling a few days ago.

Several other countries have pledged to contribute personnel to the mission, which has the blessings of the UN Security Council and is expected to number a total of 2,500 members.

The Caribbean nation has in recent years been plagued by armed gang violence, which escalated sharply earlier this year, forcing controversial de facto Prime Minister Ariel Henri to resign. Already before the manifestation of the current crisis, Haiti experienced successive political, humanitarian and security precedents.

Gang action has displaced more than 578,000 Haitians, nearly half the population (11.7 million) is hungry and 1.6 million citizens are at risk of starvation, according to UN figures. The perpetrators are accused of a host of atrocities — murder, rape, looting, kidnapping…

Transitional authorities have taken over the government, with heavy and difficult tasks: to restore security and then organize the conduct of elections.

The US ambassador to the UN yesterday met with representatives of the transitional authorities, including the new Prime Minister Gary Connell, and in particular called on his government to “quickly” establish a new electoral commission, “credible” and impartial, to prepare the electoral process in the country , where elections have been held since 2016, spokesman Nate Evans said.

“Haitians deserve free and fair elections and a government that is accountable to its people,” the diplomat told the press.

The UN has appealed for $674 million in aid to Haiti by 2024, but has received less than a quarter of those funds.

At least 40 Haitians died when the boat they were trying to emigrate on caught fire last week, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), part of the United Nations system.