PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AFP)—El Salvador has deployed special forces to Haiti after four of its soldiers serving in a UN-backed force in the Caribbean nation went missing following a gang ambush, officials said.

A contingent from El Salvador arrived on Thursday “to support ongoing search and security operations” in the Plaine du Cul-de-Sac area outside the capital Port-au-Prince, the Gang Suppression Force (GSF) said in a statement on X.

“The Force continues its operations in the area in close coordination with the Haitian National Police and relevant operational partners,” GSF said, urging local residents to stay away.

About 200 Salvadoran soldiers arrived in Port-au-Prince on Thursday and Friday to assist in the search there, a security source told AFP on condition of anonymity.

The four Salvadoran troops went missing after their armored vehicle was ambushed by gangs on Sunday as they were returning to base from a market outside Port-au-Prince, according to US envoy to the United Nations Mike Waltz.

The attackers fired hundreds of bullets and used explosives against the vehicle, Waltz said, adding that officials believed the four soldiers had survived.

El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele on Friday dismissed warnings from critics over “bloodthirsty, heavily armed” Haitian gangsters.

“We have never listened to them, and we are not going to start now,” he said on X.

Bukele on Wednesday had insisted the missing soldiers were not combatants, but aviation technicians “whose primary job is to carry out medical evacuations and save lives, not to wage war.”

He demanded their release.

“I want you, the gang leaders, to understand one thing very clearly: today’s attack is nothing compared to what is coming if we do not get all four hostages back alive,” wrote Bukele, who has pursued a sweeping crackdown on gangs in his home country.

“We have already finished with the gangs in El Salvador, and we can finish with you too.”

Bukele’s security crackdown in El Salvador has seen around 92,000 people, mostly young men, arrested and held, many without charge. A massive maximum-security prison is the centerpiece of the president’s drive to rid the Central American country of narco-gangs.

Haiti, the poorest country in the Americas, has long been in crisis but the situation has deteriorated in recent years as gangs step up killings, kidnappings, rape and child recruitment.

Earlier this month, Haitian authorities indefinitely postponed elections that were due to be held in December.

The country has not held elections since 2016, and its last president, assassinated in 2021, has not been replaced.

The GSF is being slowly deployed to assist overwhelmed local police. The mission is intended to reach 5,500 personnel.

Currently, it has only 2,000 members from six contributing countries.