Haiti gang conflict

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of El Salvador said on 28 October that it would deploy more than 2,000 soldiers to Haiti to rescue four Salvadoran military technicians, members of the Gang Suppression Force, missing since a gang ambush on 18 October. President Nayib Bukele spoke by phone with Haitian Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé, the statement said.

A government source told Le Nouvelliste that 690 Salvadoran troops arrived in Haiti on 27 October, bringing the Salvadoran contingent to 1,300 soldiers. The source said equipment had been sent on three planes and called the deployment 'not an invasion of the country'.

Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele said on 24 October that human remains handed to the Gang Suppression Force at Toussaint Louverture International Airport did not belong to the four missing Salvadoran soldiers. The force said on 25 October that it had received burned remains suspected to be theirs but could not yet confirm their identities.

El Salvador deployed a new contingent of special forces to Haiti to support the search for four Salvadoran soldiers missing since a gang ambush in Croix-des-Bouquets, the Gang Suppression Force (GSF) said. The contingent included 100 special forces soldiers, with another 100 expected later, according to the Associated Press.

The Haitian National Police (PNH), supported by a task force and the Gang Suppression Force (FRG), have been conducting a major operation since 18 October across several areas of the Plaine du Cul-de-Sac, including Croix-des-Missions, Santo, Carrefour Marassa and the Dyo corridor, HaitiLibre reported. Its stated objectives include dismantling illegal toll checkpoints and thwarting kidnapping attempts.

Members of the 'Gran Grif' gang attacked the locality of Chandelle, between Verrettes and Liancourt, during the night of 22 to 23 October, HaitiLibre reported. According to initial reports, several people were injured and warehouses used for storing rice were set on fire.

UN envoy Carlos Ruiz Massieu told the Security Council that more than a thousand people were killed and over 100 abducted in gang violence between July and September, and that repeated announcements of election dates without a feasibility check weaken trust in institutions. Force representative Jack Christofides said it had deployed over 2,000 personnel from six countries.

Gangs attacked a Gang Suppression Force armoured vehicle in Croix-des-Bouquets, north of Port-au-Prince, on Sunday. Salvadoran ambassador Egriselda Lopez told the Security Council that firearms and explosive devices set it on fire. The four Salvadoran aviation technicians aboard fled it but were still missing on 19 October; Al Jazeera and AP called it the first major attack on the force.

Three unidentified helicopters killed three people at Granfon, the fourth communal section of Saint-Marc, on the evening of 17 October, Le Nouvelliste reported. Wilbert Michel, president of the section's administrative council, said the victims, a father, son and nephew, were struck by several projectiles at their home in Lexandre.

Several members of the '103 zonbi' gang were fatally wounded in operations by law enforcement in coordination with the FRG force in Gressier, HaitiLibre reported. The city hall's director general, Claudy Alexis, said police had reclaimed several areas and destroyed boats the gang used to extort people at sea.

The UN Security Council renewed its Haiti sanctions regime on 14 October, extending the work of its sanctions committee by 13 months, UN News reported. The regime combines an arms embargo, a travel ban and an asset freeze; nine individuals and two groups are currently sanctioned.

The national police (PNH) began an operation against armed groups in Gressier, in the Ouest department, at about 4 a.m., with SWAT, BRI and UDMO units, a helicopter and drones fitted with explosive devices, Juno7 reported. No official toll had been released.

Gros-Morne's interim mayor, Hubert Cénéac, told The Haitian Times that at least 34 people, 19 civilians and 15 suspected gang members, were killed in the gang retaliation that followed a late-September security operation there, and urged residents of gang-controlled areas to leave.

At least 10,197 people were forced to flee their homes after armed gang attacks in Gros-Morne, in the Artibonite department, between 28 September and 13 October, according to the latest report from the International Organization for Migration, HaitiLibre reported.

The Gang Suppression Force held an official ceremony marking its operational launch at the Vertières military base in Tabarre, attended by Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé and representatives of the six current troop-contributing nations: Guatemala, El Salvador, Chad, Mongolia, Jamaica and Sri Lanka. The Prime Minister said the State must regain control of its territory.

A revised decree by Haiti's Provisional Electoral Council dropped the requirement that candidates show their assets are free from sanctions by a foreign country, AP reported; politicians sanctioned by the U.N. Security Council, nine Haitians who are nearly all gang leaders, remain barred from running.

A UN Panel of Experts report to the Security Council, shared by BINUH, alleged that former Arcahaie mayor Rosemila Sainvil Petit-Frère financed gang leaders, laundered money and leaked confidential information about at least three planned police operations to members of the Viv Ansanm coalition. She disputed the allegations in a letter to the panel.

Haiti's Provisional Electoral Council postponed the official election campaign, which had been due to start on 5 October, and extended candidate registration to 31 October; it said a revised calendar would follow and did not confirm whether the 13 December first round would stand.

Juno7 reported on 6 October that security forces in Kenscoff had restored a presence in Godet, Viard 1, Viard 2 and Bois-d'Avril and retaken the Belot area, after weeks of pressure and sometimes violent clashes with armed groups.

Hundreds of Gang Suppression Force personnel, backed by armoured vehicles and helicopters, deployed in Tabarre and dismantled several barricades, the force said, as part of wider patrols and operations in the Ouest and Artibonite departments.

Daniela Kroslak, head of the UN Support Office in Haiti, told AP the Gang Suppression Force stood at almost 1,600 personnel and would likely double soon, as a new wave of kidnappings hit the capital region.

UN High Commissioner Volker Türk told the Human Rights Council that at least 5,700 people had been killed or injured by gangs or in operations against them this year, and that the Gang Suppression Force remained far below the strength it needs.

The Security Council adopted resolution 2829, extending the Gang Suppression Force's mandate for six months to 31 March 2027, by 12 votes to none with China, Pakistan and Russia abstaining.

Armed violence in Gros-Morne, Artibonite, displaced about 5,254 people (1,214 households), most of whom took refuge with host families, the International Organization for Migration said.

Gang members killed at least 11 people in the Artibonite region in reprisal after a Sri Lankan Gang Suppression Force unit pushed them back from illegal toll points, the local mayor said; the force said its operation left three gang members dead.

An overnight gang raid on Kenscoff, in the hills above Port-au-Prince, killed at least 47 people and wounded more than 22, the UN said.

The Provisional Electoral Council postponed the first round of presidential and legislative elections to 13 December, with a runoff on 21 February 2027, saying the calendar depended on security and funding.

An advance team of Chadian troops and the force's Special Representative arrived in Port-au-Prince, the Gang Suppression Force's first troop deployment.

The mandate of the Transitional Presidential Council expired with no succession plan in place; the United States had backed Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé to stay on.