Haiti authorities on Friday confirmed gang leader Mathias Saintil was dead, after Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aime said on X there was “one less gang leader.”
“The fight to free the country from the grip of bandits continues with determination,” Fils-Aime added.
A National Network for the Defense of Human Rights report seen by Reuters said Saintil suffered serious abdominal wounds in a drone strike in Boston, a gang-controlled neighborhood on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince on Thursday night and died the following day while receiving treatment. The reported killing, one of the biggest blows to Haiti’s gang leadership since 2024, comes amid an intensified security campaign involving Haitian authorities and newly deployed Salvadoran troops, as the government pushes to restore stability ahead of newly delayed elections.
Around 2,000 Salvadoran troops have deployed to Haiti since last month following an ambush in which four Salvadoran members of a U.N.-backed force went missing. Some Haitians have expressed support for the Salvadoran deployment and Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele’s hard-line approach to gangs, with pro-Bukele demonstrations reported in parts of the country on Friday.
By Agencies
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