Hospitals in the Haitian commune of Cité Soleil were forced to evacuate patients on Monday as intensifying clashes between rival armed groups left one of the country’s most vulnerable communities without access to emergency medical services.
The humanitarian organization Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) announced that it had suspended operations at its hospital in the area after worsening security conditions made it impossible to safely treat patients and protect staff.
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More than 800 residents sought refuge inside the MSF compound as sustained gunfire erupted across the impoverished district of Port-au-Prince. One of the organization’s security guards was struck by a stray bullet while inside the facility.
“The gunfire has not stopped,” MSF said, noting that the violence had continued unabated since Sunday morning.
MSF said all hospitals in the immediate conflict zone are now closed. Hôpital Fontaine also evacuated patients, including newborns from its intensive care unit. Several transferred patients were admitted to MSF’s hospital, among them pregnant women who gave birth overnight.
“Currently, not a single hospital is open in the area where the fighting is taking place,” the organization said, warning that medical needs are increasing rapidly even as insecurity prevents humanitarian workers from operating safely.
Local business leaders said the latest clashes involve the Chen Mechan gang and its allies battling other groups that were, until recently, part of the same criminal coalition.
All of the factions were previously affiliated with Viv Ansanm, a broad alliance of armed gangs that has extended its influence across much of the Haitian capital. Cité Soleil occupies a strategic location near Haiti’s principal seaport and only a few miles from Toussaint Louverture International Airport.
The United Nations estimated at the end of April that nearly 5,000 people were displaced over a two-week period in Cité Soleil and the nearby commune of Croix-des-Bouquets. Another 4,400 people were forced to flee their homes in the Artibonite region during the first days of May.
Nationwide, approximately 1.45 million Haitians were internally displaced at the end of last year, representing roughly 12 percent of the country’s population. Many are living in makeshift camps or relying on relatives and friends for shelter.
The resurgence in violence comes as the Kenya-led multinational security support mission undergoes restructuring. The previous contingent recently departed Haiti as part of efforts to reorganize the U.N.-backed force, which has been hampered by funding shortages, personnel constraints, operational delays, and allegations of misconduct.
The revised plan calls for the deployment of approximately 5,500 additional personnel by the end of summer, although it remains unclear which countries will contribute troops and how the expanded mission will be financed. Haiti’s transitional government has also contracted a U.S.-based private security company to support anti-gang operations.
Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé said on Monday that Haiti’s deteriorating security environment makes it impossible to hold general elections in August as originally planned.
Haiti has not conducted national elections since 2016, and the country’s political crisis deepened following the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in July 2021.
