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Medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) will cease operations in Haiti’s capital after its staff were threatened by members of the police.
In the midst of escalating violence in the countryincluding a fatal attack on one of Doctors Without Borders’ ambulances last week, the charity said it will suspend healthcare services in Port-au-Prince “until further notice”.
Last Wednesday, police and vigilantes repeatedly stopped MSF vehicles in the city and threatened to rape and kill health workers, the group said.
MSF said police diverted one ambulance to a hospital, where “law enforcement officers and members of a self-defense group surrounded the ambulance, slashed its tires and tear-gassed MSF staff in the vehicle to force them out.”
The three injured patients were then taken a short distance away and at least two were executed, the charity said.
Doctors Without Borders is one of the few international humanitarian aid organizations still providing services in Haiti, which has since been in crisis President Jovenel Moise was assassinated at home in 2021.
A police officer monitors an area in the Petion-Ville area amid heavy fighting – GETTY IMAGES
Thousands of Haitians have been killed in fighting between gangs, security forces, police and vigilantes.
“We are used to working in conditions of extreme insecurity in Haiti and elsewhere, but when even law enforcement becomes a direct threat, we have no choice but to suspend our projects,” said Christophe Garnier, head of mission for Doctors Without Borders in Haiti.
A spokesperson for Haiti’s national police did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Doctors Without Borders, whose presence in Haiti has increased in the aftermath of the devastating 2010 earthquake, is one of the leading providers of free, quality care in the Caribbean country, operating key services such as a trauma center and a burn clinic.
The United Nations estimated last month that only 24 percent of health facilities in the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area remain open, while those outside the capital are experiencing an influx of displaced people, threatening their ability to provide essential care comes.
The humanitarian crisis has worsened as several hospitals and clinics have closed due to increasing violence.
More than 700,000 people have been internally displaced, exacerbating already severe food insecurity, pushing some 6,000 people into famine.
Residents take up arms against gangs
Fighting has intensified in recent weeks as armed gangs attempt to take control of the capital.
More than two dozen suspected gang members were killed Tuesday after residents joined police to repel an attempted nighttime attack on an affluent hilly suburb of Port-au-Prince.
Residents of Petion-Ville barricaded the streets as they mobilized, some carrying machetes and hammers, to protect the neighborhood from another gang invasion.
Haitians caught up in the violence have been forced to pack up and leave – REUTERS
REUTERS
Local newspaper Le Nouvelliste reported scenes of ‘bwa kale’ in several parts of the capital, referring to a vigilante movement that began in April last year when residents lynched and burned suspected gang members in the absence of police.
Reuters reported at least 25 bodies in the Delmas, Canape Vert and Petion-Ville neighborhoods, where residents set fire to the bodies of suspected criminals under burning tires.
The Haitian government has been calling for international support since 2022 to help police fight the gangs, which are accused of mass sexual violence, ransom kidnappings, extortion, child recruitment and blocking the flow of vital goods.
The UN Security Council approved a support mission last October, but has so far deployed only a fraction of the promised personnel. Haitian leaders have pushed for the project to be transformed into a peacekeeping mission to secure more funding.
The Security Council will meet on Wednesday afternoon to discuss the escalating violence.
The United States has banned all civilian flights to Haiti for a month after three planes approaching or departing Port-au-Prince were hit by gunfire.
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