Haiti police accused of shooting two patients, attacking staff of French medical charity

The French medical charity Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières said Wednesday that at least two patients at its Haiti hospital were executed and its staff violently attacked after one of its ambulances in Port-au-Prince was stopped on Monday by Haitian police officers and members of a vigilante group.

The ambulance was about 100 meters from the medical mission’s hospital in the Drouillard area of Port-au-Prince carrying with three young people suffering from gunshot wounds when it was stopped, the medical charity said. Police attempted to arrest the patients and fired shots in the air before escorting the ambulance to Hôpital La Paix, a public hospital in the capital.

Once at Hôpital La Paix, Haitian police officers and members of a so-called citizens self-defense group allegedly surrounded the ambulance, slashed its tires and tear-gassed the medical charity’s staff inside to force them out. They then took the wounded patients a short distance away, outside the hospital grounds, where at least two of them were executed, the charity said in a statement.

“This act is a shocking display of violence, both for the patients and for MSF medical personnel, and it seriously calls into question MSF’s ability to continue delivering essential care to the Haitian people, which is in dire need,” said Christophe Garnier, head of the MSF mission. “Our teams and our patients need a minimum level of safety to continue providing medical care.”

MSF staff was “insulted, tear-gassed, threatened with death, and held against their will,” the mission said. The ambulance was damaged and unable to be driven.

A spokesperson for the Haiti National Police did not respond to a Miami Herald request for comment.

Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières is one of the few humanitarian aid groups in Haiti providing assistance to people increasingly without access to hospitals and doctors as gang violence escalates.

The alleged extrajudicial police killing coincides with increasing uncertainty in Haiti, as the country grapples with a new political crisis after the firing of its latest prime minister and Port-au-Prince sees an escalation in armed gang violence. The United Nations said there were at least 20 armed clashes on Tuesday as armed groups fanned out across the capital, erecting barricades and terrorizing residents.

The latest wave of violence has led to a temporary shutdown of the country’s airspace and a 30-day ban by the Federal Aviation Administration on U.S. commercial and cargo carriers flying into Haiti. The FAA decision came after three U.S.-based air carriers — American Airlines, JetBlue and Spirit — were struck by gunfire on Monday while flying over Port-au-Prince.

The U.N. has announced a temporary suspension of its own humanitarian flights, which will limit access to aid at a time when 5.4 million Haitians are struggling with increased hunger and pockets of famine are popping up in the displacement camps housing 700,000 Haitians who have been forced to flee their homes.

“The movement of 20 trucks of critical food and medical supplies to the south was also postponed,” Stéphane Dujarric, spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, told reporters in New York on Tuesday. The southwestern city of Les Cayes reported at least one death and one disappearance after heavy rainfall flooded rivers and farms in the south.

“The seaport remains open from the sea, but road access to the port is currently not possible,” he said. “Our partners report that all schools in Port-au-Prince have been closed. Additionally, operations providing cash assistance to 1,000 people in the Carrefour area had to be canceled amid the ongoing violence.”

‘Grave violation of human rights’

William O’Neill, the U.N.s’ independent human-rights experts on Haiti, who has been increasingly concerned about extrajudicial police killings and the deteriorating human-rights situation, said the attacks against Doctors Without Border/Médecins Sans Frontières are unacceptable.

“Attacking an ambulance, threatening and physically abusing medical staff and executing people seeking medical care is a grave violation of human rights,” he told the Herald. “The Inspector General of the police must take immediate action including referring the case to prosecutors. Impunity is a grave threat to Haitian society. Those involved in this heinous crime must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law regardless of their status.“

Earlier this week, a video purportedly taken by a drone belonging to a gang leader showed Haitian police in a black armored car shooting a man after stopping him in the Grand Rue area of downtown Port-au-Prince, and then running over his body. The shocking video of the shooting by an alleged hooded police officer has raised concerns in foreign missions, which are looking into its authenticity and demanding an investigation.

This is the second time in two months that Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières has said its efforts to provide care to a critical patient ended in death at the hands of police.

In September, an MSF ambulance carrying a patient in critical condition was stopped by police in the capital and held for more than an hour, preventing him from receiving care for an open fracture. The patient finally died before reaching a hospital, MSF said at the time.

“We call on the authorities... to uphold the right to access medical care without discrimination or hindrance, and to ensure the protection of patients, as well as respect for medical personnel and healthcare facilities in the face of increasing violence,” MSF said.

Since Monday, gangs have been ramping up attacks in neighborhoods, invading homes and setting fire to buildings. Among the victims: one of the country’s few urologists. Dr. Deborah Pierre was killed when she and her father were shot in their medical clinic in an area of downtown Port-au-Prince.

Pierre was one of only four urologists in the country, Patrick Moussignac, the owner of Radio Caraibes, said after announcing her death and featuring a video of her being honored by Miami urologist Dr. Angelo Gousse. Pierre spent six months in South Florida as a fellow in Gousse’s Bladder Health and Reconstructive Urology program. At the time, she was his fourth fellow, Gousse said, in a program aimed at bringing young graduates in Haiti to the U.S. to work with him in order to support Haitian urologists.

“I am devastated,” Gousse, a urological surgeon, told the Herald about the assassination of Pierre, who was “like a daughter” and was present with her husband at the birth of their first child after her fellowship.

The increase in violence has coincided with the weekend ouster of Garry Conille as prime minister and the installation of entrepreneur Alix Didier Fils-Aimé as the country’s third prime minister in a year.