In brief
The humanitarian organization Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has temporarily ceased operations in Port-au-Prince due to violent attacks on its staff and the murder of patients under its care, worsened by a rising tide of gang violence.
The humanitarian medical organization Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has announced a suspension of its operations in the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince. This halt follows a severe incident involving the violent attack on its personnel and the tragic deaths of two patients they were treating at the hands of Haitian police officers. The attack occurred last week as the nation grapples with escalating violence, which left an estimated 25 individuals dead in Port-au-Prince in a single day due to a foiled gang invasion attempt in a wealthy neighborhood.The political landscape remains unstable as well, with interim Prime Minister Garry Conille being dismissed by the ruling council earlier this month, only six months into his leadership. On November 11, a harrowing event unfolded when one of MSF's ambulances carrying three injured young men was intercepted by law enforcement. Allegedly, with assistance from a paramilitary group, officers confronted the ambulance team, extracting two patients before executing them outside the hospital.In a statement released last week, MSF condemned the actions of the authorities, who they claim had tear-gassed their personnel and held them captive for several hours during this incident. While this attack marked the tipping point for MSF's operations in Port-au-Prince, it was not an isolated case of violence against their teams. This development arises amidst a broader context of increasing violence in Haiti, with the police reporting that local residents aided in thwarting a gang attack in the upscale area of Pétion-Ville. Community members barricaded streets, some armed with makeshift weapons, in a desperate effort to protect their neighborhood from criminal infiltration.
