Haiti News Politics
Haiti PM says gang leader Mathias Saintil dead
Gang leader Mathias Saintil died of wounds suffered in a Thursday night drone strike in Boston, on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince, Haitian authorities confirmed Friday — a killing Reuters calls one of the biggest blows to Haiti's gang leadership since 2024.
PORT-AU-PRINCE — Haitian authorities confirmed on Friday that gang leader Mathias Saintil is dead, after Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé said on X that there was “one less gang leader.”
“The fight to free the country from the grip of bandits continues with determination,” Fils-Aimé added.
A report by the National Network for the Defense of Human Rights (RNDDH), seen by Reuters, said Saintil suffered serious abdominal wounds in a drone strike in Boston, a gang-controlled neighborhood on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince, on Thursday night, and died the following day while receiving treatment.
The reported killing is one of the biggest blows to Haiti's gang leadership since 2024, according to Reuters. It comes amid an intensified security campaign involving Haitian authorities and newly deployed Salvadoran troops, as the government pushes to restore stability ahead of newly delayed elections.
Around 2,000 Salvadoran troops have deployed to Haiti since last month, following an ambush in which four Salvadoran members of a U.N.-backed force went missing. Some Haitians have expressed support for the Salvadoran deployment and for President Nayib Bukele's hard-line approach to gangs, with pro-Bukele demonstrations reported in parts of the country on Friday.
Reporting based on: Reuters. The facts come from the credited reporting; the words are our desk’s own.
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