Armed gangs have absolute control over certain neighborhoods and kidnappings for ransom are committed every day, mainly in the capital Port-au-Prince. It is in this context that Médecins sans frontières (MSF) announces the temporary suspension of its activities in Cité Soleil.
With our correspondent in Port-au-Prince, Amelie Baron
gang violence continues to affect daily life in Haiti. Violence has been committed against people who wanted to go to its emergency centre, which is why the organization has suspended its activities there. The measure is intended to be temporary, but MSF specifies that this hospital will remain closed. as long as the security conditions are not guaranteed “.
painful decision
” We condemn all forms of obstruction and violence against medical services, our patients and our staff members “, explains Thierry Goffeau, head of mission of MSF in Haiti.
For the NGO, it is a painful decision because, in Cité Soleil, it took care of the victims of violence. Reducing access to care when the needs are only increasing was a difficult but necessary choice for the safety of patients and MSF staff.
Already in August, the NGO had to close a center in Martissant, this time permanently. The hospital had been operating for 15 years in the heart of this poor neighborhood, where gangs clash fiercely today and has been since June.
Abducted Doctors
The violence of these armed gangs drastically reduced access to healthcare for the country’s poorest people. And a number of doctors, already in a largely insufficient number, have left or are considering leaving Haiti since two of their colleagues were kidnapped in March from their clinic.
Several thousand people demonstrated peacefully on Tuesday in Port-au-Prince against crime and Prime Minister Ariel Henry, whose inaction against gangs they denounce.