U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with Kenyan President William Ruto about the Haiti crisis and the two men underscored their commitment to a multinational security mission to restore order, the State Department said on Saturday.

Haiti entered a state of emergency last Sunday after fighting escalated while Prime Minister Ariel Henry was in Nairobi seeking a deal for the long-delayed U.N.-backed mission.

Kenya announced last year it would lead the force but months of domestic legal wrangling have effectively placed the mission on hold.

In a statement, the State Department said Blinken and Ruto "underscored unwavering commitment to the deployment of a Multinational Security Support mission".

It gave no other details of the talks and did not say when the conversation took place. REUTERS