Four Salvadoran members of the United Nations-backed Gang Suppression Force in Haiti remain missing after an armed attack north of Port-au-Prince over the weekend, the Salvadoran military said, the mission’s first major battlefield loss since deploying this year.
The four aviation technicians with El Salvador’s Liberty II Task Force were returning to their camp in a white all-terrain Toyota on Sunday when they were ambushed by heavily armed criminals, the military said in a statement. The assailants used firearms and explosives, igniting the vehicle.
The four managed to escape the burning vehicle but contact with them has been lost.
“Search operations, supported by GSF helicopters, continue amid heavy fighting,” Gang Suppression Force spokesman Igor Rugwiza said.
The international force, which also includes troops from Chad, Jamaica and Guatemala, deployed this year to help the Haitian National Police confront the armed groups that are estimated to control 90 percent of the capital.
The four men came under attack in Santo, Croix-des-Bouquets, a person familiar with the operation told The Washington Post. Gangs in the area have repeatedly clashed with Haitian and international forces.
It’s unclear how the four missing found themselves without support in the gang-controlled area, according to the person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
Rugwiza said the Gang Suppression Force was “continuing to assess the situation and verify the circumstances surrounding the incident.”
“At this stage,” he said, “our priority remains the safe and secure return of our soldiers.”
The Salvadoran military is considering sending additional forces after the incident, the person familiar said.
Search-and-rescue efforts have been hampered by challenging security conditions. Helicopters have come under fire. The area has been obscured by smoke from fires possibly set intentionally for the purpose.
The Gang Suppression Force is “directly exchanging fire with the gangs in the territory of [the] Chen Mechan [gang], which received support from 400 Mawozo,” the person familiar said. 400 Mawozo abducted 17 members of an Ohio-based missionary group in Croix-des-Bouquets in 2021. Five of the members were released; the rest eventually escaped.
A U.N. official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly, said the Salvadorans had gone shopping and had likely become lost. “They were not in a regular operation when they were taken,” the official said.
The Gang Suppression Force replaced the Kenyan-led Multinational Security Support Mission in April. The U.N. Security Council has endowed it with more than twice as many troops and more aggressive rules of engagement. The deployment currently has just over 2,000 personnel out of a planned 5,500.
The force’s mission is to help the Caribbean nation of 12 million restore security so it may hold elections. The presidency has been vacant since the 2021 assassination of Jovenel Moïse; the National Assembly has been closed since the terms of the last senators expired in 2023.
The United States has provided planning, logistics and funding totaling more than $970 million to the effort.
Mike Waltz, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., offered condolences and support Sunday to Salvadoran U.N. Ambassador Egriselda López.
More than 3,000 people were killed and more than 1,500 injured from last October through March, according to the U.N. mission in Haiti. The violence has forced 1.5 million people, about 12 percent of the population, from their homes.
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