The NGO does not plan to leave the country but decided to withdraw from a hospital near Port-au-Prince after armed men released a patient to kill him.
MO12345LEMONDE with AFP
“It’s sad but there are times when we no longer have the choice: a dead doctor no longer treats.” Raw but unstoppable, the declaration of Benoît Vasseur, chief of mission of doctors without borders (MSF ) In Haiti, illustrates the dismay that affects members of the NGO facing the extreme violence of gangs in this Caribbean country.
MSF announced, Friday, January 27, suspend its activities in a hospital in the commune of Carrefour, west of the capital Port-au Prince, after a dramatic event the day before. Armed men, who burst into the hospital establishment, “released a patient injured by the emergency room and coldly executed him in the head,” said the NGO in a press release.
The facts, which occurred in the middle of the afternoon, constitute the second drama of its kind in less than six months in this hospital located in the suburbs of Port-au-Prince, near zones under the total control of gangs .
“From the moment we cannot guarantee safety, neither of our patients nor from our teams, we cannot continue to work,” deplored with the France-Presse (AFP) agency Benoît Vasseur .
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Present for more than thirty years in the country of the Caribbean, the NGO very often constitutes the only offer of care for hundreds of thousands of Haitians who cannot afford the fees of private structures . The stopping of MSF services in this hospital means that there will be no more emergency care, quality and free for nearly 800,000 people, estimated Mr. Vasseur.
The armed gangs, which control more than half of the Haitian territory, use their growing power by multiplying in recent days villainous and executions. Wednesday, members of armed bands killed six police officers during a magnitude attack on a police station in the north of the country, which caused a demonstration of exasperated police officers. Data: Image/SVG+XML,%3CSVG%20xmlns = ‘http: //www.w3.org/2000/svg’%20viewbox=’0%200%20664%20443’%3e%3C/svg%3e “Data -Srcset = “https://img.lemde.fr/2023/01/27/0/0/6000/4000/1328/0/45/0/d8a4017_5316151-01-06.jpg 1328W, https: // IMG .LeMDE.fr/2023/01/27/0/0/6000/4000/664/75/0/D8A4017_5316151-01-06.JPG 664W “Data-sizes =” (min-width: 768px) 664px, 100VW “alt =” tires burn during a police demonstration in Port-au-Prince, January 26, 2023. ” Width = “664” height = “443”>
and health centers do not constitute sanctuaries. Four of the agents who died Wednesday had been injured earlier during the day, then “released” by gang members of the clinic where they were treated “in order to execute them”, according to the police.
Despite this resurgence of violence, MSF does not see for the moment to leave the country. “In Haiti, we still enjoy an excellent acceptance on the part of the population and the various actors and, thanks to that, we manage to work,” explains Benoît Vasseur.