Madar (International) - El Salvador's Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced on Wednesday, October 28, 2026, plans to send more than 2,000 soldiers to Haiti to search for four missing Salvadoran aviation technicians and fight armed gangs, Al Jazeera English reported, citing AFP and Reuters.
The same day, Haiti's electoral authorities moved the first round of presidential and parliamentary elections from December 13 to July 18, 2027. The nine-member Provisional Electoral Council scheduled a second round and local polls for October 4, 2027, extended deadlines for candidates to register and introduced online voter registration.
The four Salvadorans disappeared on October 18 after armed men ambushed their vehicle in Croix-des-Bouquets, east of the capital Port-au-Prince, while serving with an international security mission supporting Haitian police. President Nayib Bukele has already sent troops to help find them and on October 21 threatened to destroy Haiti's gangs if they did not release the missing personnel.
Bukele spoke by telephone on Wednesday with Haitian Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aime, whose office said they agreed to strengthen cooperation on rescue efforts and security operations. It remains unclear whether the additional Salvadoran troops will join the UN-backed Gang Suppression Force or operate separately, the report said.
Fewer than 900,000 people had registered to vote by Wednesday, out of 6.5 million Haitians holding the identification cards needed to enrol, the Miami Herald reported. Haiti has held no elections since 2016, and its last president, Jovenel Moise, was assassinated in 2021.
An international food security assessment released on Wednesday found that 5.94 million Haitians face acute hunger, including 1.8 million in emergency conditions, a figure projected to rise to 6.35 million by mid-2027.
