El Salvador has dispatched over 2,000 troops to Haiti in a significant operation to locate four soldiers missing after an ambush. The confirmation of this deployment was provided by officials on Wednesday.
The soldiers from the Gang Suppression Force (GSF) went missing on October 18 when attackers targeted their armored vehicle as they returned to base from a market near Port-au-Prince, according to the Salvadoran government.
The Salvadoran foreign ministry stated, “El Salvador will continue with the operational deployment of more than two thousand soldiers to rescue the four Salvadoran soldiers, in a large-scale operation supported by various countries and international organizations.”
President Nayib Bukele has been actively involved in the rescue efforts and communicated by phone with Haiti’s Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aime on Wednesday regarding the operation. In a social media post last week written in Haitian Creole, Bukele warned he would take strong action against gangs in Haiti if they did not release the missing soldiers, similar to his approach in El Salvador.
The newly deployed troops will bolster the efforts of previously stationed forces in the Plaine du Cul-de-Sac area, as the search for the missing soldiers intensifies.
