Doctors Without Borders halts operations in Haiti's capital

20/11/2024 12:03

        Doctors Without Borders said on Tuesday that it is stopping operations across the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince and its wider metropolitan area due to an escalation in violence and threats its staff received from members of the Haitian police.
        
        It said the suspension would last "until further notice."
        
        MSF said in a statement that since a deadly attack on one of its ambulances last week, police had repeatedly stopped its vehicles and directly threatened their staff, some with death and rape threats.
        
        "We are used to working in conditions of extreme insecurity in Haiti and elsewhere, but when even law enforcement becomes a direct threat, we have no choice but to suspend our projects," MSF's Haiti mission chief Christophe Garnier said.
        
        MSF, whose presence grew in Haiti in the wake of the devastating 2010 earthquake, is one of the main providers of quality free healthcare in the Caribbean nation and operates key services such as a trauma center and a burn clinic.
        
        The U.N. estimated last month that just 24% of the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area's health facilities remain open, while those outside the capital face an influx of displaced people jeopardizing their ability to provide essential care.