Four human remains delivered to special forces on a mission to Haiti are "not our men", El Salvador's president Nayib Bukele has announced, according to BBC News.

According to BBC News, Nayib Bukele stated that a nongovernmental organisation delivered the remains to an airport, claiming they belonged to four El Salvadoran air technicians. However, the president pointed out that one of the corpses was a child's and another wore a different country's army uniform. BBC News reported that Bukele had previously dispatched a military contingent after the men vanished following an ambush by heavily armed criminal groups. The New York Times, cited by BBC News, had earlier reported that bodies found on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince were thought to belong to the missing personnel, though those bodies were badly burned.

Background

According to BBC News, the missing men were part of the UN-backed Gang Suppression Force (GSF), tasked with addressing worsening gang violence in Haiti. They were travelling in an armoured vehicle when attacked in the Croix-des-Bouquets area, with no gang claiming responsibility. BBC News noted that Nayib Bukele had deployed approximately 450 soldiers, with Haitian newspaper Le Nouvelliste cited as the source for the troop figure. Bukele stated that the mission's sole purpose was to return the four men alive, emphasizing that they were deployed to carry out medical evacuations and save lives rather than to wage war. BBC News reported that Haiti has suffered from severe gang violence following the 2021 presidential assassination, with the UN recording more than 5,700 people killed or injured by gangs or during operations between January 1 and September 11.

Why it matters

For observers tracking international peacekeeping and security operations, the incident underscores the severe dangers and complexities faced by personnel deployed to regions experiencing severe institutional breakdowns and armed conflict. The conflicting reports surrounding the fate of missing personnel highlight the challenges of verifying information in active conflict zones where multinational forces struggle to penetrate areas controlled by armed groups.