Four Salvadoran air force technicians were travelling back to their base in an armoured vehicle when armed men ambushed them in Croix-des-Bouquets, east of Port-au-Prince, on October 18. The technicians, who were serving with the Gang Suppression Force, disappeared after the attack in an area controlled by armed groups.
President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador responded three days later with a threat directed at Haiti’s gangs. In a post on X in Haitian Creole on October 21, he said he would destroy them if they did not release the missing personnel.
Haiti then handed four bodies to Salvadoran special forces, saying they were the missing servicemen. Bukele rejected that identification, saying one corpse was a child and another wore another country’s military uniform.
On Wednesday, El Salvador’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that it would send more than 2,000 soldiers to Haiti to search for the four technicians and fight armed gangs.
Later that day, Bukele spoke by telephone with Haiti’s prime minister, Alix Didier Fils-Aime. The prime minister’s office said the two leaders had agreed to strengthen cooperation on the rescue operation and security work.
It remains unclear whether the additional Salvadoran troops will enter the United Nations-backed Gang Suppression Force or work separately.
The force is an international security mission that supports Haitian police. In October last year, the UN Security Council approved expanded powers for it to tackle gang violence in Haiti.
The operation comes as armed gangs control much of Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capital. More than 5,700 people have been killed in gang-related violence in Haiti this year, according to the UN.
Haiti’s electoral authorities have also delayed the first round of presidential and parliamentary elections from December 13 to July 18, 2027. A second round and local polls are scheduled for October 4, 2027.
Haiti has held no elections since 2016. Its last president, Jovenel Moïse, was assassinated in 2021.
By Wednesday, fewer than 900,000 people had registered to vote from 6.5 million Haitians who hold the identification cards required to enrol.
An international food security assessment released on Wednesday found that 5.94 million Haitians face acute hunger, including 1.8 million in emergency conditions. It projected that 6.35 million people would face acute hunger by mid-2027.
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