MADRID, 25 Feb. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has warned that the very serious situation of insecurity in Port-au-Prince due to the crime of criminal gangs that control a large part of the Haitian capital is endangering its aid operations and does not rule out completely suspending its activities if the situation continues.
MSF denounces two serious incidents that have occurred this week, the first of which occurred on Wednesday the 22nd, when the Haitian Police blocked the entrances and exits of the MSF emergency center in Turgeau and searched an ambulance. Refusing to leave their weapons outside, the Police entered the facility to verify the identity of all registered patients.
The following night, hooded gunmen attempted to break into the MSF hospital in Tabarre Issa, where they “pointed their weapons at the staff and banged on the door before attempting to scale the wall to enter the hospital compound,” according to the MSF coordinator in Haiti, Mahaman Bachard Iro. The incident did not pass over.
“We ask all parties to respect the medical mission we have, even as MSF remains one of the last international organizations still providing care in the Haitian capital,” he said. The organization has been deployed in the country for 30 years, one of the poorest in the world.
In addition, two violent clashes between armed groups have taken place since the beginning of the year a few meters from the MSF hospital in the Cité Soleil neighborhood, which has caused the temporary suspension of consultations and the temporary evacuation of part of the staff.
“Faced with these repeated and disturbing clashes, and with the fact that the front line between the armed groups is getting closer and closer to the hospital, MSF fears that it will no longer be able to continue providing safe medical care to the community,” the NGO said. it’s a statement.
“It is increasingly difficult to work in these conditions and the recurrence of these incidents endangers the safety of our medical staff and patients,” adds Bachard Iro.
“These constant obstacles to our teams moving through Port-au-Prince to transfer patients from one hospital to another, coupled with these violent intrusions into our medical facilities and crossfire at the gates of our healthcare facilities seriously threaten our activities,” points out.
It should be recalled that MSF temporarily closed the Drouillard hospital in April 2022, almost a year after definitively suspending the activities of its emergency center in Martissant in June 2021, and also suspended its support for the Raoul Pierre Louis de Carrefour hospital, in January 2023, for security reasons.
The United Nations already warned in the middle of the month of the increase in gang attacks and violence in Haiti, which would have caused a total of 95 fatalities on a single day in July 2022.
According to the latest report, between July 8 and December 31, 2022, gangs caused the death of 263 people while another 285 were injured and four went missing, all in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Cité Soleil. In addition, 57 group rapes of women and girls would have taken place.
The highest data recorded in just one day occurred on July 8, when a total of 95 people, including six children, were killed in gang attacks in Haiti.
According to UN data, the recent political and humanitarian crises in Haiti have left nearly five million people – half the country’s population – in a situation of acute famine. A panorama that has worsened as a result of the territorial war between a coalition of gangs that takes place in the region.