Haiti Gang Leader Seeks UN Mediation as El Salvador Sends More Than 2,000 Troops to Search for Four Missing Soldiers
Haitian gang leader Wilson Joseph has written to UN Secretary-General António Guterres asking the United Nations to send a delegation to engage in dialogue with international forces in Haiti, while El Salvador has sent more than 2,000 troops into the country to search for four missing Salvadoran soldiers, UN News reported on November 3.
Mr. Joseph, nicknamed Lanmò Sanjou, leads the 400 Mawozo gang, notorious for kidnappings for ransom, which infamously kidnapped 17 missionaries from the United States and Canada in October 2021; the FBI is offering a $1 million reward for information leading to his arrest. In his letter, Mr. Joseph claimed to have “officially raised the white flag” as he seeks a peaceful solution to the Haitian crisis, said he fears the Salvadoran intervention will provoke an increase in reprisals against civilians, and noted that the four missing Salvadorans are now dead.
The UN confirmed on Monday evening that it had received the letter. “The receipt of such a letter does not constitute an endorsement of its contents, nor an acknowledgment of its author, nor a position taken by the United Nations,” Stéphane Dujarric, spokesman for the Secretary-General, said in a note to the press.
The four Salvadoran soldiers were serving with the UN Security Council-backed Gang Suppression Force (GSF) and disappeared during an attack by armed groups on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince on 18 October; media reports said the troops El Salvador sent at the end of October are on a mission to rescue them. The Haitian authorities consider them to be missing, while the Salvadoran government believes that they are still alive. Mr. Dujarric said the “vast majority” of the additional 2,000 Salvadoran troops operating in Haiti “are not deployed under the Gang Suppression Force,” and added that all security operations in Haiti must be carried out in full accordance with applicable international law.
According to the UN, gangs control most of the capital, Port-au-Prince; more than 5,700 people were killed or injured in Haiti between January and mid-September this year, nearly 1.5 million people were forced to flee their homes, and around 6.4 million people, more than half of the population, require humanitarian assistance. The GSF is authorised to have 5,500 personnel, but the number remains well below that target.
(Source: UN News)
Source: UN News
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：海地首都太子港市区航拍。Roosewelt Pinheiro／Agência Brasil 摄，CC BY 3.0 BR，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: Aerial view of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Photo by Roosewelt Pinheiro/Agência Brasil, CC BY 3.0 BR, via Wikimedia Commons.
