Salvadoran convoy spotted in Port-au-Prince after 2,000 troops sent
By the AFREEQUE newsroom, based on Africanews
The deployment of 2,000 Salvadoran troops to Haiti had already been announced on 30 October. Africa News reports that a convoy was spotted in the Tabarre district of Port-au-Prince, while President Nayib Bukele says his troops are seeking, among other things, to find four missing technicians.
A convoy of heavily armed Salvadoran troops was spotted on Friday 30 October in the Tabarre district of Port-au-Prince, after Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele deployed 2,000 soldiers to Haiti, the Associated Press reports. The convoy included armoured vehicles and soldiers carrying automatic weapons.
The deployment follows an attack in which four Salvadoran members of the Gang Suppression Force went missing. The Haitian government says they were kidnapped. Nayib Bukele said on X on Thursday that his country wanted only to bring back the four aviation technicians and that the operation was not targeting the Haitian people or seeking to take control of the country.
The Haitian government has presented the deployment as strengthening cooperation between the two countries within the UN-backed force against gangs. Experts have, however, raised questions about the Salvadoran soldiers’ exact role and the risks of an escalation in violence. More than 5,700 people were killed or injured in Haiti between January and mid-September, according to the UN.
The deployment of 2,000 Salvadoran soldiers was announced by Nayib Bukele on 30 October as part of the Salvadoran mission in Haiti.
