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El Salvador Sends 2,000 Troops to Haiti for Missing Soldiers
· Confirmed
In Short: FBC News and Fbcnews reported that El Salvador will send over 2,000 soldiers to Haiti to support the search and rescue for the missing personnel and to reinforce bilateral coordination and operational cooperation in the framework of the UN-backed Gang Suppression Force (GSF).
El Salvador's Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced on Wednesday the deployment of over 2,000 troops to Haiti to rescue four missing soldiers and combat gangs, according to Al Jazeera and BBC. President Nayib Bukele communicated this 'robust deployment' to Haiti's Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aime earlier in the week, as stated by the foreign ministry of El Salvador.
Al Jazeera reported that the deployment comes amid Haiti's postponement of its presidential and parliamentary elections from December 13 to July 18, 2027, while BBC noted that more than 5,700 people were killed in gang-related violence in Haiti this year, according to the UN.
FBC News and Fbcnews reported that El Salvador will send over 2,000 soldiers to Haiti to support the search and rescue for the missing personnel and to reinforce bilateral coordination and operational cooperation in the framework of the UN-backed Gang Suppression Force (GSF).
The Haitian Times and Thestar reported that the contingent included 100 special forces soldiers, with another 100 expected to arrive later that day, marking a shift in El Salvador's reported profile of contribution to the mission, which Bukele had previously described as focused on aviation support, medical evacuations, and technical assistance.
Al Jazeera and Thestar noted that fewer than 900,000 people had registered for the elections by Wednesday, out of 6.5 million Haitians holding the identification cards needed to enroll, while an international food security assessment found that 5.94 million Haitians face acute hunger, including 1.8 million in emergency conditions.
Record-Eagle and NPR reported that the special forces arrived a day after President Bukele announced a military operation to rescue the four aviation technicians and warned of a more forceful response if they were not released alive and unharmed.
Bukele, in a post on X, threatened to destroy Haiti's gangs if they did not release the missing personnel, as reported by Al Jazeera and Thestar. He also demanded that the gangs return the Salvadorans 'alive, unharmed' and warned of a more powerful operation if they did not.
The Haitian Times and FBC News reported that the deployment marks a shift in El Salvador's contribution to the mission, which Bukele has previously described as focused on aviation support, medical evacuations, and technical assistance rather than direct combat against gangs.
President Bukele said the bodies handed over to Salvadoran forces in Haiti were 'not our men,' according to BBC and Warpbeat.
The Haitian Times and Thestar reported that it was not immediately clear if Haitian authorities had received confirmation that the Salvadoran soldiers were alive.
Both Al Jazeera and Thestar reported that gang violence has displaced nearly 1.5 million people in Haiti in recent years, with more than 5,700 people killed or injured from January through mid-September and more than 230 people kidnapped, according to the UN.
Al Jazeera and Thestar agreed that the deployment of El Salvador's troops to Haiti aims to support rescue efforts and security operations, while also noting the ongoing gang violence and the challenges it poses to elections and food security.
What this adds
The deployment of El Salvador's troops to Haiti marks a shift in the mission's profile, expanding its role beyond medical evacuations to include direct combat against gangs, as reported by The Haitian Times and FBC News. The Haitian Times and Thestar agreed that the deployment aims to support rescue efforts and security operations, while also noting the ongoing gang violence and the challenges it poses to elections and food security.
Background
El Salvador deployed more than 2,000 troops to Haiti to rescue four missing soldiers and combat gangs.
El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele says four bodies handed over by Haitian authorities are not the missing Salvadoran soldiers.
What's confirmed
- El Salvador will send over 2,000 soldiers to Haiti to rescue missing personnel and support anti-gang security operations, its foreign ministry said.
- Since 2024, foreign troops have deployed under UN-backed security missions intended to help Haitian police secure neighborhoods and pave the way to a secure and credible vote.
- El Salvador has deployed a new contingent of special forces to Haiti to support the search and rescue for four Salvadoran soldiers missing since a gang ambush in Croix-des-Bouquets on Oct. 18, according to the United Nations-backed Gang Suppression Force (GSF).
- Nayib Bukele said the bodies handed to Salvadoran forces in Haiti were "not our men" Four bodies handed over to special forces on a mission to Haiti to recover Salvadoran hostages are "not our men", El Salvador's president has said.
- The special forces arrived a day after Salvadorean President Nayib Bukele announced a military operation to rescue the four aviation technicians and warned of a more forceful response if they’re not released alive and unharmed.
What's still developing
- It remains unclear whether the additional Salvadoran troops will join the United Nations-backed Gang Suppression Force, a multinational mission assisting Haitian police against gangs, or operate separately.
- President Nayib Bukele has already sent troops to help find them.
- Two officials have told The Associated Press that El Salvador has deployed 100 special forces soldiers to Haiti to help recover four missing soldiers from the Central American country who recently came under attack by gangs.
- Gangs in Haiti had opened fire on an armored vehicle three days earlier the first major attack since an international gang suppression force began operating in the violence-wracked Caribbean country.
- “Don’t take our words as an empty threat. We have already dealt with the gangs in El Salvador, and we can deal with you too,” Bukele wrote on X.
- No one has claimed responsibility for the attack on the Salvadoran troops and it comes as Haiti prepares for its first general election in more than a decade.