MSF suspends activities in Port-au-Prince following death threats from Haitian police
MSF suspended all patient admissions at its five facilities in Port-au-Prince from 20 November following repeated threats made by members of the Haitian police force.
MSF forced to interrupt care in Port-au-Prince amid police violence
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) suspended all patient admissions across the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area from 20 November following a series of direct threats issued by members of Haiti's police forces against its personnel. According to msf.fr, the decision came in response to at least five incidents that occurred within one week.
On 11 November, an MSF ambulance was attacked: at least two patients were executed and members of the medical staff were assaulted. This incident triggered a rapid escalation involving, this time, members of the forces of order.
Four additional incidents within one week
On 12 November, two ambulances were intercepted by officers of the Brigade of Research and Intervention (BRI) of the Haitian National Police, who threatened to kill the personnel in the following days.
On 16 November, at Delmas 33, an MSF driver was verbally assaulted by plainclothes police officers, who warned him of future attacks against the organisation's ambulances.
On 17 November, shortly before midnight, a SWAT team intercepted an ambulance transporting a patient near Boulevard Toussaint Louverture and threatened to execute the patient on the spot. After intense negotiations, the vehicle was authorised to proceed to the MSF hospital in Tabarre.
On 18 November, at Carrefour Rita, an armed plainclothes police officer with a pistol intercepted an MSF vehicle carrying personnel. He stated that starting the following week, police forces would begin executing and burning the organisation's personnel, patients and ambulances.
"We have no other choice"
"In Haiti and elsewhere, we are accustomed to working in conditions of extreme insecurity, but when even the forces of order become a direct threat, we have no other choice but to suspend our projects," said Christophe Garnier, MSF mission chief in Haiti.
Garnier described each day of suspension as a "tragedy", recalling that MSF was among the few medical providers to remain operational during a year he describes as "extremely difficult". "But we can no longer continue to operate in an environment where our personnel risk being attacked, raped or even killed," he added.
Attacks have also been repeatedly carried out against MSF personnel and ambulances by armed self-defence groups, particularly during the 11 November incident.
A medical void for thousands of patients
Each week, MSF treated on average more than 1,100 patients in outpatient consultations in the Port-au-Prince metropolitan region, 54 children in emergency situations, more than 80 survivors of sexual and gender-based violence, as well as numerous burn victims.
The suspension covers all medical services, with the exception of care provided to patients already hospitalised in the organisation's five facilities and in its mobile clinics in the capital. Maternal health activities in the south of the country, at Port-à-Piment, are also continuing.
"We have been present in Haiti for more than 30 years, and it is with profound regret that we make this decision, whilst health services have never been more limited for the Haitian population," said Garnier. MSF conditions the resumption of new patient admissions in Port-au-Prince on obtaining security guarantees from armed groups, self-defence groups and the forces of order.
Source: Google News HT — Port-au-Prince