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Medical aid organization Doctors Without Borders temporarily halts operations in the capital of Haiti

November 20, 2024 TruthUSA

The international humanitarian organization has announced the suspension of its operations in Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, and the wider metropolitan area due to alleged threats to staff. The suspension will last until further notice.

Doctors Without Borders made the decision after alleged threats to staff by Haitian police officers. The suspension will remain in effect “until further notice” or until the organization and its workers are assured of unhindered “security and respect” from armed groups, “vigilante groups,” and law enforcement officers, as stated in a statement released on Nov. 20.

All medical services, except for those for patients already hospitalized at its five medical facilities and its mobile clinics in the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area, have been suspended. Maternal health activities in Port-a-Piment in the south of the country will continue as usual, the charity stated.

The organization reported that Haitian police officers stopped their vehicles multiple times in the week following an attack on a Doctors Without Borders ambulance, which resulted in casualties and attacks on its staff.

“After an attempt to arrest the patients and firing shots in the air, the police escorted the ambulance to Hôpital La Paix,” the charity said in a statement on Nov. 13. “Once there, law enforcement officers and members of a self-defence group surrounded the ambulance, slashed the tires, and tear-gassed [Doctors Without Borders] staff inside the vehicle 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.”

Haitian law enforcement officials have also “directly threatened” the organization’s staff members with death and rape in the week since the attack, the organization said.

Spokespersons for Haiti’s national police have declined to comment on the situation.

The organization has had to stop patient admissions and transfers to its medical facilities in Haiti’s capital due to the direct targeting of its personnel and patients, causing a significant impact on its services in the country.

Doctors Without Borders has been providing free health care in Haiti since the devastating earthquake in 2010. It is a major health care provider in the Caribbean nation, offering various services for trauma and violence victims.

“As [Doctors Without Borders], we accept working in conditions of insecurity, but when even law enforcement becomes a direct threat, we have no choice but to suspend admissions of patients in Port-au-Prince until the conditions are met for us to resume,” said Christophe Garnier, leader of the organization in Haiti.

“Every day that we cannot resume activities is a tragedy, as we are one of the few providers of a wide range of medical services who have remained open during this extremely difficult year. However, we can no longer continue operating in an environment where our staff is at risk of being attacked, raped, or even killed.”

The security situation in Haiti has deteriorated rapidly following increased armed gang violence, sexual assaults, home invasions, and murders after a 2021 earthquake and the assassination of President Jovenel Moise. A nationwide state of emergency was declared in September.

Doctors Without Borders provides care to approximately 1,100 outpatients and 54 children with emergency conditions each week in the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area, on average.

“We have been in Haiti for more than 30 years, and this decision is taken with a heavy heart, as health care services have never been so limited for people in Haiti,” Garnier added.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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