The UN has backed Kenya's offer to lead a multinational security force in Haiti in response to a plea from the Caribbean nation's prime minister for help restoring order.
Haiti has suffered from gang violence for decades but the current wave of brutality escalated after the July 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse.
Gangs have taken control of large parts of the country, waging terror on residents and killing hundreds.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres has said that a "robust use of force" is needed to disarm the gangs and restore order.
Greenlighting the deployment, the UN Security Council resolution approves the mission for a year with a review after nine months.
The new force will carry out joint security operations and will have the authority to make arrests in coordination with Haitian police, according to the resolution.
It will also aim to create conditions to hold elections. Haiti has not had an election since 2016.
Haiti's Foreign Minister Jean Victor Geneus called the decision "a glimmer of hope for the people that have for too long been suffering."
What has Kenya offered to do?
Kenya has said it would send 1,000 police officers to Haiti.
When this was first proposed in July, Kenyan officials said the officers would guard government buildings and infrastructure, but that plan changed after Kenya sent a fact-finding mission the following month.
The country now wants to deploy an intervention force that will neutralise the armed gangs, protect civilians and bring about peace, security and order.
Foreign Minister Alfred Mutua told the BBC that his country would also like to help Haiti rebuild vital infrastructure and establish a stable democratic government.
The Bahamas, Jamaica and Antigua and Barbuda have said they will take part in the mission and the minister added that Spain, Senegal and Chile were also likely to deploy security personnel.
Mr Mutua said he expected the force to be in place by the beginning of next year.
What will the Kenyan police find in Haiti?
Haiti is experiencing a multi-faceted security and humanitarian crisis that Mr Guterres called "a living nightmare".
Swathes of the mountain-cradled coastal capital Port-au-Prince - some estimates say 80% - are either controlled or regularly terrorised by heavily armed gangs.
These gangs, with names in Haitian creole such as "Kraze Barye" (Barrier-Crusher) and "Gran Grif" (Big Claw), have over the last two years been robbing, looting, extorting, kidnapping, raping and killing.
Armed with automatic weapons smuggled in mostly from the US, the gang members often out-gun the local police, sometimes burning their vehicles and stations.
They control, or regularly raid, the main routes in and out of the capital.
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