Salvadoran troops target Haitian gang, leaving 20 dead

Salvadoran troops backed the police operation ahead of the Haitian prime minister’s visit to El Salvador.El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele said that Salvadoran troops have targeted one of Haiti’s largest criminal organisations. It comes amid international calls to respect international human rights law.Bukele announced the attack on Tuesday on the social media platform X.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemslist 1 of 3El Salvador pledges more than 2,000 soldiers as Haiti delays electionslist 2 of 3El Salvador’s Bukele touts military intervention in Haitilist 3 of 3‘One less gang leader’: Haiti’s prime minister celebrates police operationend of list“We destroyed the house of [gang leader] Lanmo San Jou and the 400 Mawozo gang’s headquarters,” the right-wing leader wrote.Bukele posted a video of helicopters circling overhead and firing on the site in Croix-des-Bouquets, near Port-au-Prince.The operation was reportedly conducted on Sunday by Haitian police with support from Salvadoran troops, and resulted in the killing of 20 people.The announcement comes as Haiti’s prime minister, Alix Didier Fils-Aime, prepares to visit El Salvador next week to discuss the future of Salvadoran troops in his gang-plagued Caribbean nation.El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele speaks during a news conference at the Presidential Palace in San Salvador on October 16, 2026 [AFP]Amnesty International has urged both countries to ensure that all operations conducted by Salvadoran forces in Haiti comply with international human rights law, and called on them to release the agreement governing the mass deployment.“Both governments must make public the agreement governing the deployment and explain how they oversee the deployed forces, what rules govern the use of force, to whom they are accountable, and how people can report possible violations without fear of reprisals,” Amnesty’s Americas director Ana Piquer said.“Ensure that all operations conducted by Salvadoran forces in Haiti comply with international human rights law,” she urged the leaders of the two nations.She also called on both countries to establish “prompt, independent and impartial investigations into all allegations of human rights violations”.“The response to gang violence must not replicate the abuses and impunity that have characterized previous interventions in Haiti,” she added.Haiti Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aime is set to visit El Salvador next week [File: Patrice Noel/Reuters]Some 2,000 troops have been sent by El Salvador’s president to Haiti since the mid-October disappearance of four Salvadoran personnel.The vast majority are not participating in the United Nations-backed Gang Suppression Force (GSF), raising concerns about their rules of engagement.Bukele initially stated the deployment aimed at bringing home four Salvadoran GSF soldiers who went missing during an ambush attack on October 18.But more recently, he has hinted at a broader goal of eliminating Haiti’s powerful gangs, as he did in his own country with a campaign pockmarked with allegations of human rights abuses.Haiti is set to hold elections in July and October next year, marking its first ones in more than a decade.