Haiti: Doctors suspend activities after gunmen kill patient

CMC – The international, medical, humanitarian organisation, Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières or MSF) Friday said it is suspending “indefinitely” all activities at the Turgeau Emergency Centre, after a group of armed men stopped an MSF ambulance and seized and killed a patient.

MSF said that the centre is one of the medical facilities where it operates in Port-au-Prince, and that on Tuesday this week “a severely wounded man” was admitted to the facility.

“The patient’s condition was critical, and the medical team decided to transfer him to another hospital where he could receive the necessary specialized care,” it said, adding that a convoy of two ambulances left the emergency centre for two patient transfers.

“A few metres outside the centre, however, a dozen armed individuals appeared from a side street and blocked the convoy. They beat on the hood of the ambulance and fired shots in the air.”

“They looked inside the first ambulance and ordered the second ambulance to return to the Emergency Centre. They took the patient from the first ambulance by force. They beat him and shot him several times. When he was dead, they fled the scene,” MSF said.

‘We need a minimum of safety to carry out our medical mission,” said Benoît Vasseur, MSF Head of Mission in Haiti.

“We can’t work if our medical mission is threatened by violence. MSF is one of the very few international organisations delivering medical care in the capital. We can’t accept that our ambulances are attacked, and our patients are beaten and killed. To carry out our work, our medical facilities, our staff, and our patients must be respected,” Vasseur said.

“We can see that Haitians are desperate and furious. They are subjected to terrible cruelties on a daily basis. We are direct witnesses of it: rape, torture, murder attempts. All our medical services are here to provide care to people in this midst of this violence,” he added.

MSF said “unfortunately it has to announce the indefinite suspension of all activities in its Turgeau Emergency Centre, to allow for an analysis of the attack, and the reevaluation of the risk for its staff and patients”.

The facility was opened in 2021 and MSF said it normally provides care for patients with urgent medical conditions, such as following traffic accidents and other emergencies. After stabilising patients, the Emergency Centre refers or redirects patients to other care facilities if necessary.

MSF said it would continue to offer free, high-quality health care in its other facilities in Port-au-Prince: MSF’s hospital in Cite Soleil, Tabarre and a clinic for survivors of sexual violence.

“Our mobile clinics continue to work in different areas of the city and in camps for displaced people. In the south of the country, the maternity clinic in Port-à-Piment remains open as well.”

Haiti has been plagued with gang violence ever since President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated in July 2021 and the United Nations Security Council has approved a resolution allowing for an international multi-national force led by Kenya to help restore peace and security in the French-speaking Caribbean Community (CARICOM) country.

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