UNITED NATIONS — The U.N. Security Council voted Tuesday to authorize a much larger, 5,550-member international force with expanded powers to help stop escalating gang violence in Haiti.

The resolution, co-sponsored by the United States and Panama, will transform the current Kenya-led multinational force into a “Gang Suppression Force” with the power to arrest suspected gang members, which the current force does not have.

The vote was 12-0 with Russia, China and Pakistan abstaining.

U.S. Ambassador Mike Waltz said the resolution’s adoption “offers Haiti hope.”

“It is a hope that has been rapidly slipping away as terrorist gangs expanded their territory, raped, pillaged, murdered and terrorized the Haitian population … (and) jeopardized the very existence of the Haitian state,” he said.

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