Haiti: MSF suspends its activities in Port-au-Prince

The NGO Doctors Without Borders (MSF) announced Tuesday evening that it was suspending its activities in the capital of Haiti following “violence and threats from the police forces” and in particular after two of its patients were killed on November 11 in this country in full chaos.

Following “serious threats made against its staff by members of the Haitian police forces, MSF is forced to suspend its activities in Port-au-Prince until further notice”, as of Wednesday, said the NGO in a press release.

The NGO recalls that it had denounced incidents two days earlier on November 13 when one of its ambulances “was attacked, leading to the execution of at least two patients and an attack on medical staff.”

“Conditions of extreme insecurity”

“The following week, police officers repeatedly stopped MSF vehicles and directly threatened staff, including threats of death and rape,” the press release further denounces.

In “Haiti and elsewhere, we are used to working in conditions of extreme insecurity, but when even law enforcement becomes a direct threat, we have no choice but to suspend our projects,” adds MSF.

This poor Caribbean country has suffered from chronic political instability for decades. But it must also face a new resurgence of gang violence, which controls 80% of the capital Port-au-Prince.

“Restore security”

These armed groups, accused of numerous murders, rapes, looting and kidnappings for ransom, decided at the beginning of the year to join forces to overthrow Prime Minister Ariel Henry.

A new prime minister, Alix Didier Fils-Aimé, was sworn in on November 11. He promised to “restore security” in the country following the dismissal of his predecessor Garry Conille by the Presidential Transitional Council which is at the head of the executive of this country deprived of a president since 2021 and elections since 2016 .

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