All activities of the Organization “Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)” in Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti, are suspended until further notice. The decision, according to Christophe Garnier, MSF head of mission in Haiti, was taken by officials because of armed violence followed by threats from members of the Haitian police forces and self-defense groups against its medical staff, reads -on in a press release.
THE HAITI FACTOR, November 20, 2024._The Organization “Médecins Sans Frontières MSF”, through a press release published on Tuesday, November 19, 2024, informed the general public of the suspension until further notice of its services in Port-au-Prince.
The leaders of the institution wrote that they took the decision because of the armed violence plaguing the Haitian capital followed by serious threats that members of the Haitian police forces have made against its staff.
In the said press release, MSF cited all the facts which prompted it to adopt this measure in order to guarantee the safety of its members. It first began with the attack orchestrated on Monday, November 11 by police forces as well as members of a self-defense group against an ambulance which resulted in the execution of at least two (2) patients and an attack on medical staff.
Médecins Sans Frontières went on to say that in the following week, police officers repeatedly stopped vehicles serving the institution and directly threatened staff, including threats of death and rape. Thus, on the 12th of the same month, those in charge denounced the fact that two (2) MSF ambulances were stopped by officers of the Research and Intervention Brigade (BRI) of the Haitian National Police. The latter even threatened to kill the staff in the coming days, according to their statements.
Four (4) days later, on November 16, an MSF driver was verbally attacked in Delmas 33 by plainclothes police officers. They took the opportunity to warn of future attacks against ambulances belonging to the organization.
The next day, shortly before midnight, an ambulance carrying a patient was stopped near Toussaint Louverture Boulevard by a SWAT TEAM who threatened to execute the patient on the spot. After intense negotiations, the leaders said, the ambulance was authorized to continue its route to the MSF hospital in Tabarre.
And, finally, on Monday, November 18, at Carrefour Rita, a Haitian National Police vehicle driven by a plainclothes police officer armed with a pistol, intercepted an MSF vehicle transporting staff to their place of work. He threatened MSF members on board, declaring that the following week, police forces would begin executing and burning staff, patients and ambulances, Médecins Sans Frontières leaders lamented. .
“These repeated incidents forced the organization to halt all patient admissions and transfers to its five medical facilities in the Haitian capital as of November 20, because they are a manifestation of direct targeting of staff and patients of MSF in Haiti,” regrets Christophe Garnier, MSF head of mission in Haiti.
He specified that the suspension of activities concerns all medical services, with the exception of care for patients already hospitalized in its five medical structures and mobile clinics in the metropolitan region of Port-au-Prince. Maternal health activities in the south of the country, in Port-à-Piment, are also continuing, he suggested.
As for Port-au-Prince, activities will resume for admissions of new patients when the Organization has guarantees of security and respect by armed groups, members of self-defense groups and law enforcement. », added Christophe Garnier.
THE HAITI FACTOR (LFH)
