Four Salvadoran technicians still missing after ambush; El Salvador sends special forces to search

Four members of El Salvador's aviation unit serving with the Gang Suppression Force (GSF) in Haiti have been missing since Sunday, October 18, when their armoured vehicle was ambushed in Santo, in the Croix-des-Bouquets area east of Port-au-Prince, as they returned from buying food. The vehicle was struck by gunfire and explosives and set ablaze; all four men got out and escaped on foot, but contact was then lost. Helicopters sent to support them also came under fire, and repeated attempts to reach the area by land and by air were blocked by fierce fighting.

The four are non-combatant aviation technicians whose work is medical evacuation — flying the wounded out, not fighting. Haiti's government says the men were abducted and called their release an “absolute priority,” with a meeting held at the prime minister's office on Wednesday to assess the ongoing interventions. No gang has publicly claimed responsibility for the ambush. At the UN Security Council on Monday, U.S. Ambassador Mike Waltz said of the missing men: “We believe the four men survived, but they do remain unaccounted for.”

President Nayib Bukele, posting in Haitian Creole on Wednesday, told gang leaders directly that the kidnapped men are not combatants and demanded they be returned “alive and unharmed” — warning that if they are not, the response will be far stronger than anything seen so far. El Salvador deployed about 100 special-forces personnel on Thursday to the Plaine du Cul-de-Sac to search alongside the Haitian National Police, and a second contingent of about 100 more was reported dispatched. The GSF has urged residents to stay clear of the search area.

The ambush was the first major attack since the international Gang Suppression Force began operating in Haiti, and it has become a test of the mission itself: whether the force can protect its own people in the gang-held districts east of the capital, where the U.S. Embassy has warned of continuous heavy fighting around Santo and Croix-des-Bouquets.

This is a developing story. The desk will update it as the GSF, the Haitian government, or El Salvador confirm new facts.