El Salvador Deploys More Than 2,000 Troops to Haiti in Search for Missing Soldiers

El Salvador has deployed more than 2,000 soldiers to Haiti as part of a mission to retrieve four nationals who went missing in the Caribbean country almost two weeks ago. The deployment was communicated by El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele to Haitian Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aime earlier this week, the Salvadoran foreign ministry said in a statement on Wednesday. The ministry described the move as a robust deployment and said the soldiers would also assist ongoing security efforts against gangs in Haiti. The four missing personnel are air force technicians who were working with the UN-backed Gang Suppression Force (GSF). They were travelling back to their base in an armoured vehicle when they were ambushed in Croix-des-Bouquets, an area of the country controlled by armed groups. No gang has so far claimed responsibility for the incident. Tensions between the two countries have escalated since the disappearance. Earlier this week, Haitian authorities handed four bodies over to special forces, claiming they belonged to the missing servicemen, but President Bukele said the remains did not match. He said one of the corpses was that of a child and another was wearing a different country's military uniform. Last week, Bukele threatened in a post on X to wipe out Haiti's gangs, saying he would replicate the action he has taken in El Salvador if they did not release the Salvadorans. The foreign ministry said the large-scale operation was supported by various countries and international organisations. The deployment comes amid a broader effort to confront Haiti's deteriorating security situation. In October last year, the UN Security Council approved expanded powers for the GSF to tackle worsening gang violence in the country. The multinational force has struggled to penetrate areas where gangs hold sway, and armed groups control much of the capital, Port-au-Prince. According to the United Nations, more than 5,700 people were killed in gang-related violence in Haiti this year. The country has been ravaged by gang violence for years, but the situation has worsened in the political vacuum that followed the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in 2021.