Haiti’s Civilian Deaths Are Real: Erik Prince, Nayib Bukele and Haitian Police Must Answer Allegations of Attacks on Innocent People

• 

EDITORIAL: Bukele Cannot Dismiss Haiti’s Civilian Victims With a Social Media Denial

By Cherlie Joseph

Echo News

Haitian civilians do not need a foreign president’s permission to describe their suffering. They do not surrender their credibility because they live in neighborhoods controlled by armed groups. And they should never be branded accomplices of criminals simply because they demand answers about military operations conducted around their homes.

The allegations presented to United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres by the United Nations Association–Haiti, known as UNA-Haiti, deserve serious scrutiny. The organization has accused Salvadoran forces of attacks affecting civilian neighborhoods and called for an investigation. President Nayib Bukele has rejected those accusations.

Our editorial position is clear: the complainants deserve to be heard, witnesses deserve protection, and allegations of civilian deaths require an independent investigation. A president’s dismissal cannot substitute for that process.

There is already documented evidence that security operations in Haiti have killed and injured people outside armed groups, including children. The suffering behind these warnings cannot honestly be dismissed as an invention.

The immediate question is who was responsible for the particular attacks now being reported. Establishing that responsibility requires evidence, access and transparency—not insults directed at those raising the alarm.

Civilian suffering is already documented

In a statement published on May 1, 2026, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights expressed concern about deaths linked to drone operations in Haiti. It cited information from the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti and civil society organizations indicating that operations involving drones and helicopter fire had killed at least 60 people reportedly unaffiliated with gangs and injured 49 others. Those figures included 13 children killed and 10 injured.

The commission also referred to findings that some drone strikes involved Haitian law enforcement supported by a foreign private military contractor.

These findings predate the latest dispute involving Bukele. They do not establish Salvadoran responsibility for the October incidents. They do establish something fundamental: warnings about civilians being killed during security operations in Haiti have a documented basis.

Any public discussion that ignores that record begins by erasing victims.

Families living in affected neighborhoods have every reason to demand that their accounts be recorded and examined. Their testimony should be tested carefully, as all evidence should be. It should never be discarded merely because it challenges the official presentation of a security operation.

Bukele’s explanation must face independent scrutiny

In his response, Bukele said Salvadoran attack helicopters arrived in Haiti on October 29 and had not flown a mission as of his October 31 statement. He also said his mission did not have bombs at its disposal.

Those are specific assertions. Investigators should examine them alongside the allegations, including the dates, locations and identification of the aircraft or weapons involved.

If the chronology contradicts a particular allegation, that matters. If witnesses have attributed an attack to the wrong force, that must be corrected. Accuracy strengthens the demand for justice.

But a dispute about one contingent’s equipment or arrival date cannot resolve every report of violence in a country where several security actors operate. It cannot establish that no civilian was harmed by another force, another aircraft or another operation.

The public needs an independently established account of what happened: which units operated in the affected areas, what weapons were used, who authorized their use, and what happened to the people living there.

Publish the relevant operational records, with appropriate protection for witnesses and genuinely sensitive information. Preserve flight logs, orders, recordings and weapons records. Allow investigators to compare them with hospital information, physical evidence and testimony from residents.

A government confident in its account should welcome a process capable of testing it.

Denouncing possible abuses is not defending gangs

Bukele’s response also accused nongovernmental organizations of serving criminal interests under humanitarian cover.

That accusation is deeply troubling. Reporting possible civilian deaths does not establish a connection to a gang. Asking who fired on a neighborhood does not make someone an enemy of public security.

A mother demanding an explanation for her child’s death is entitled to an answer. A resident describing damage to a home is entitled to be heard. An organization presenting allegations to the United Nations is entitled to have those allegations assessed on their evidence.

Authorities may challenge errors. They may present contradictory records. They may demand corrections. But accusing complainants of working for criminals requires evidence of its own.

Such rhetoric risks making frightened witnesses even less willing to speak. It also encourages an unacceptable assumption: that people who question the conduct of security forces must somehow support the armed groups those forces are pursuing.

Haitians can demand protection from gangs and accountability from security forces at the same time. Their rights depend on both.

A neighborhood is more than the armed group operating inside it

People living in Croix-des-Bouquets, Canaan and other affected communities include children, elderly residents, workers, caregivers and families with nowhere safe to go.

Their address is not proof of criminal involvement.

Security operations must account for the people who remain inside these neighborhoods. Those residents cannot be treated as an indistinguishable population whose deaths can be explained away by pointing to gang activity nearby.

The presence of armed criminals makes civilian protection more urgent. It does not reduce the value of civilian lives.

Every reported death deserves careful examination. Every claim that a person killed was a gang member needs a defensible factual basis. Every credible report of a damaged civilian home deserves documentation and an explanation.

Military success cannot be measured honestly while civilian losses remain hidden or unexamined.

Haitian media must question every powerful actor

Haitian journalism has a responsibility to investigate official accounts as rigorously as it examines allegations from residents.

Repeating a presidential denial does not settle a factual dispute. Broadcasting images of armed patrols does not explain what happened inside a damaged home. Describing an operation as a victory does not answer a family searching for a missing relative.

Journalists should seek witnesses, verify locations and dates, examine available footage, consult medical workers and request responses from the forces implicated.

No outlet should present unverified allegations as established findings. Equally, no outlet should present a government’s denial as independently proven fact.

The obligation is to the public, particularly to people whose suffering is easiest to overlook. Haitian audiences deserve reporting that helps them understand events and assess evidence.

The United Nations must insist on answers

UNA-Haiti is a diaspora advocacy organization, separate from the United Nations. Its name does not make its allegations UN findings. Its independence from the UN, however, provides no reason to disregard its complaint.

The allegations should trigger a credible examination of the incidents described.

That examination must distinguish between Salvadoran personnel, the Gang Suppression Force, Haitian police, private contractors and any other actors whose involvement evidence establishes. Responsibility must be traced through actual conduct and command structures.

Witnesses need safe ways to provide information. Families need access to answers. Investigators need access to affected locations and relevant records. Findings should be made public, and any established abuses should bring consequences.

Where ongoing practices expose civilians to serious danger, protective changes should be made immediately.

We stand with Haitians demanding accountability

We support the complainants in bringing the suffering of Haitian communities before the international community. Their demand for an investigation is legitimate, urgent and consistent with concerns already documented by international human rights bodies.

Supporting that demand also means insisting on precision. The evidence must establish who committed each act. No force should escape scrutiny because it enjoys political support, and no accusation should be considered proven simply because it has been repeated.

President Bukele is entitled to defend his personnel with evidence. Haitian civilians are entitled to challenge his account with evidence of their own.

What no president is entitled to do is close the discussion by discrediting everyone asking questions.

Haiti’s people deserve protection, dignity and a public record that takes their lives seriously. Their dead deserve names. Their families deserve answers. And anyone found responsible for unlawful killings must face accountability.

Source credits: Agencia EFE, November 1, 2026; Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, statement No. 077/26, May 1, 2026; reporting on UNA-Haiti’s open letter and President Nayib Bukele’s October 31 response.