PORT AU PRINCE, Haiti – Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), also known as Doctors Without Borders, has confirmed the suspension of its services at the Raoul Pierre Louis hospital in the town of Carrefour, a largely residential commune in the Port-au-Prince Arrondissement, after gunmen last week dragged a patient out of institution and killed him.
Raoul Pierre Louis hospital“This is the second time we have this kind of incident in this hospital,” says Benoit Vasseur, MSF’s head of mission in Haiti, referring to an incident that occurred on August 14 last year.
“We are again shocked by this act of brutal retribution, which violates all humanitarian principles and the protection this patient should have had inside a medical structure.
“Faced with this unacceptable level of violence, we have no other choice than to temporarily suspend all our activities in Raoul Pierre Louis hospital. We will suspend activities for as long as we cannot guarantee the safety of our staff and patients,” Vasseur added.
The incident occurred last Thursday when demonstrations and riots broke out in several districts of the capital and its surroundings by police officers protesting the killing of several police officers by criminal gangs and blamed the government for not taking action.
According to the National Union of Haitian Police Officers, 14 men have been killed since the start of the year in various gang attacks on police stations.
Media reports said that three hooded and armed men burst into the Raoul Pierre Louis hospital, entered the emergency room and seized a patient lying on a stretcher who had just been admitted for a gunshot wound. They took him out of the hospital and finished him with a bullet in the head.
MSF teams have been working in Haiti for more than 30 years treating the poorest communities and it has appealed to armed men to respect the medical mission.
