Aid workers were forced to stop providing thousands of Haitians with much-needed care as shooting broke out in downtown Port-au-Prince.
Aid workers from The Alliance for International Medical Action, a humanitarian group based in Senegal, warned that weeks of gang violence had forced about eighteen hospitals to close and created a lack of medical supplies while Haiti’s major international airport and largest ports remain closed.
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“The situation is really challenging and affects our movement on a daily basis,” The gang violence in the city has forced some 17,000 people from their homes, forcing many of them to live in abandoned schools and other buildings where they frequently share a single bathroom, according to Antoine Maillard, the organization’s medical coordinator headquartered in Port-au-Prince.
Maillard said aid workers were able to reach one of the camps for displaced people on April 9, 2024, the day of the event, “but there were too many gunshots to provide support.”
The health situation, he claimed, is becoming worse. Due to gang violence, providers of basic pharmaceuticals, such as antibiotics and antidiarrheals, have closed, making them harder to find.
The cost of the few accessible medications has increased by two or even three times.
This implies that people in Haiti, such as Denise Duval, 65, are unable to see a doctor or purchase necessary medication.
“My health right now is not good,” She mentioned having high blood pressure and frequently feeling lightheaded, “From hearing gunfire all the time, my heart beats a lot.”
Due to her mother’s migration to the neighboring Dominican Republic in pursuit of employment, Duval is caring for three grandkids. Although the mother tries to send money, Duval stated that it is insufficient to both sustain the children and purchase medication.
“We’re living day-by-day and hoping that something will change,” She mentioned this while cleaning dishes in a bucket while sitting outside her house.
Even while gang violence has considerably decreased in some neighborhoods since gunmen started targeting important government facilities on February 29, gunfire still reverberates across Port-au-Prince regularly.
