A hospital director recently informed reporters that armed individuals stormed and partially damaged a hospital in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The violence escalated to the point where Doctors Without Borders suspended operations in Haiti last month.
According to the hospital director, who wished to remain anonymous, the bandits burned down the Bernard Mevs hospital that night, destroying all the lab equipment and four operating rooms.
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A local gang leader had threatened to evacuate the hospital, so neither patients nor staff were hurt in the attack. Earlier this year, the U.N. humanitarian affairs agency warned that Haiti’s health system was “nearing collapse,” with violence increasingly putting medical professionals and services in danger.
Following an attack on one of its ambulances and police harassment and threats, the charity organization Doctors Without Borders was compelled to suspend operations in Port-au-Prince last month temporarily. The group recently restarted activities to a larger extent.
The hospital acknowledged that it had been attacked in a statement posted on the WhatsApp messaging app.
Gangs’ increasing influence in and around the capital has been difficult for the government of Haiti to control due to political infighting. The armed gangs are charged with gang rapes, ransom kidnappings, indiscriminate executions, and causing food shortages.
