The U.N. Security Council on Thursday “voted unanimously to extend the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Haiti until mid-October 2014 so it can continue contributing to stability and development in the small Caribbean nation,” the U.N. News Centre reports. The “resolution decided that [the U.N. Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH)] overall force levels will consist of up to 5,021 troops and of a police component composed of up to 2,601 personnel. Currently, the mission consists of 6,233 troops and 2,457 police,” the news service notes (10/10). The resolution “noted government efforts to ‘control and eliminate'” the cholera epidemic that began in October 2010 following a devastating earthquake in the country, Agence France-Presse reports.

The resolution “urged ‘United Nations entities in coordination with other relevant actors to continue to support the government of Haiti in addressing the structural weaknesses, in particular in the water and sanitation systems’ in the impoverished Caribbean nation,” the news agency writes, adding, “It said there should be support for ‘rapid and targeted medical responses to outbreaks designed to reduce the threat’ from the cholera” (10/10). In response to a question about a “class action lawsuit filed [Wednesday] in a United States Federal Court in New York in connection with the cholera outbreak,” U.N. spokesperson Farhan Haq told a news conference, “The United Nations is working on the ground with the government and people of Haiti both to provide immediate and practical assistance to those affected, and to put in place better infrastructure and services for all,” another U.N. News Centre article reports (10/9).