MSF cites police brutality as reason for suspension of operations in Haiti’s capital | Humanitarian Crisis News

The move follows an ambulance attack in which patients were executed and staff were tear gassed.

Doctors Without Borders, known by its French initials MSF, announced that it has stopped its services in Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti, due to “police violence and threats”.

Police officers repeatedly stopped vehicles and threatened staff with death and rape over the past week, the international medical aid agency said in a statement overnight Tuesday.

Haiti has been plagued by violence and instability in recent years; police and vigilantes are waging a fierce war against gangs that seized control of much of Port-au-Prince earlier this year.

This chaos has made MSF one of the main providers of quality healthcare in Haiti. However, the NGO said admissions of patients at five medical facilities in the capital have been suspended until further notice.

“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,” said Christophe Garnier, chief of mission to Haiti.

MSF said the move followed last week’s attack on an ambulance by “members of a vigilante group and law enforcement officers” who surrounded the vehicle, fired tear gas at staff and executed “at least two” patients.

The NGO cited four separate incidents of threats from the police. In one of them, an armed plainclothes police officer said on 18 November that he would begin executing and burning staff, patients and ambulances starting next week.

Deepening turmoil

The suspension of MSF’s medical services comes at a time of deepening unrest in Haiti.

Earlier this month, interim Prime Minister Garry Conille was sacked by the country’s governing council, which was set up to restore order amid rising gang violence.

Gangs that control 85 percent of the city have forced more than 20,000 people to flee Port-au-Prince in recent days, adding to the more than 700,000 people left homeless in recent years, the UN said.

Vigilante groups have also emerged and have reportedly taken harsh reprisals against police as the gangs attempt to expand their control into other parts of the city.

The Haitian government had called for international support in 2022 to help its police fight gangs accused of mass sexual violence, ransom kidnapping, extortion, child recruitment and blocking supplies.

The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) approved a support mission last October but has so far deployed only a small fraction of the promised personnel.

The UNSC will meet on Wednesday afternoon to discuss the escalating violence.