Amid growing violence, targeted attacks, medical group withdraws from Haiti facilities

In the midst of a spiraling risis in which hospitals are struggling to provide care amid U.S. aid freezes and gang attacks have left several medical facilities in flames, the French charity Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières has practically been the only choice for Haitians needing care.

Since the beginning of the year, two of its medical facilities, an emergency center in the Turgeau neighborhood of the capital and a trauma hospital just to its south in the suburb of Carrefour, have carried out more than 3,600 consultations and treated an equal number of patients with emergencies.

On Tuesday, the charity said it is shutting down both facilities for at least three months. The group cited the ongoing violence in Port-au-Prince, which is making it difficult for both patients and staff to get to parts of the capital, as well as attacks that have targeted its staff and vehicles.

Last month, as staff evacuated the Turgeau hospital during an intense firefight between armed gang members and Haitian police, someone in a vehicle opened fire on one of the charity’s convoys, injuring several staff members.

At the time, the charity said the shooting was “intentional” but offered no details about who was responsible.

On Tuesday, nearly a month after the March 15 incident, the charity said its vehicles “were deliberately targeted by at least one hooded man in uniform and were struck 15 times.”

The attack occurred as the group was evacuating patients and staff from Turgeau to Carrefour with the knowledge of Haitian authorities, in vehicles clearly identified as belonging to the charity. As a result of the attack, the medical group was forced to stop using the route.

Second critical incident

The organization’s staff “cannot continue risking their lives to provide this service,” the charity said in a press release about its decision to temporarily suspend operations at the two facilities.

“This is the second critical incident the organization has suffered in the last four months,” the group said, adding it is still waiting for the results of investigations by Haitian authorities.

In November, the charity halted all services for 21 days due to several attacks and threats from members of the Haiti National Police force. The group said at the time that Haitian police officers had attacked one of its ambulances that resulted in the execution of at least two patients and injuries to staffers, and that after the incident they continued to be subjected to threats from police.

Police have not publicly addressed the accusations. But tensions between the charity and Haiti police are not new. They’ve long existed and have intensified amid an increasingly complex environment where vigilante groups have joined with Haiti’s security forces and the Kenya-led Multinational Security Support mission to fend off deadly attacks by armed gangs. Amid the chaos, police officers and members of the public have been on a hunt for gang members.

During the three-month suspension, the charity plans to carry out an assessment about whether its teams will be able to return to work. The group’s medical staffers treated injured Haiti National Police officers in Turgeau before finding themselves near the front line of the ongoing gang attacks in the center of Port-au-Prince.

The attacks have become an almost daily occurrence as members of the Viv Ansanm gang coalition expand control over the capital and attempt to expand their reach into neighboring regions.

‘Extreme suffering’

The French charity said the renewed violence and attacks on its vehicles shows that recent security guarantees have not been upheld by Haitian authorities, and it want concrete actions to ensure the safety of its teams. Without that, resuming operations in Turgeau and Carrefour remains impossible.

“The extreme suffering of people in Haiti makes this decision all the more heartbreaking, but a dead or injured doctor or nurse can do nothing for patients in need,” said Benoît Vasseur, the group’s head of mission in Haiti. “We reiterate our appeal to all parties concerned to respect the medical mission and ensure the protection of health structures, ambulances, patients and staff.”

The withdrawal from the two meidcal facilitires means that Haitians, who were already facing dwindling options for healthcare, now have fewer.

In December, armed gangs set fire to the Bernard Mevs Hospital, a key trauma and critical care hospital in Port-au-Prince, forcing its closure. In February, gangs again set fire to the already shuttered General Hospital.

The latest attack on the General Hospital came after members of the powerful gang coalition opened fire during a press conference in December meant to announce a partial reopening of the facility. A police officer and two journalists were killed and seven journalists were injured.

Last week, the country’s healthcare suffered another blow when two gangs affiliated with the coalition targeted the rural city of Mirebalais in Haiti’s Central Plateau, several miles northeast of Port-au-Prince. The attacks, which continue, forced the exodus of residents in the area and of patient and staff from the 350-bed University Hospital of Mirebalais by the medical nonprofit Zami Lasante and Boston-based Partners In Health. The facility was built by the late Dr. Paul Farmer after Haiti’s 2010 earthquake and is a leader in the care of patients with HIV/AIDS, cancer and other diseases.

Doctors Without Borders has been present in Haiti for over 30 years, providing medical care during some of the country’s most challenging crises including hurricanes and the two deadly earthquakes that rocked Haiti in 2010 and 2021. It also was a leader in providing care to victims of cholera, sometimes providing the only medical care in far-flung communities accessible only on foot or by donkey.

More recently the response has focused on people hurt by gangs, including victims of gunfire and the survivors of sexual violence. Those services, the charity said, will continue.

They include the Tabarre Trauma Reference Center, which treats victims of serious burns, accidents and violence; the Drouillard Hospital in Cité Soleil, which has a 24-hour emergency service and includes physical and mental health treatment for survivors of sexual and gender-based violence. The Pran Men’m clinic will continue to provide medical and psychological care to sexual violence survivors.

Since 2021, the charity has also been running mobile clinics in several areas for displaced people and disadvantaged neighborhoods in the capital, and wll continue to provide emergency obstetric and neonatal care, as well as maternal health services south of Haiti in Port-à-Piment and the surrounding area.