Haiti: 20 Armed Men Storm Hospital, Forcing Doctors Without Borders To Suspend Treatments

By Rick Martin Jul 09 2023, 22:26 PM EDT

The Haiti crisis continues to simmer as armed gangs attack a Port-au-Prince hospital, forcing aid group Doctors Without Borders to suspend their treatment of all patients at the Trauma and Burn Care Unit at the Tabarre Hospital in the Haitian capital.

Some 20 armed men reportedly burst into the operating room where the charity's doctors were operating on a patient. The armed men then snatched the patient away. According to the Associated Press, that patient was being treated for gunshot wounds.

The gang gained access to the hospital after two men faked a life-threatening emergency. They then opened the gate to allow the armed group inside the premises. Following the attack, the aid group announced the suspension of treatment at the hospital.

The incident happened as a surge of killings has been happening across Port-au-Prince. Gangs, which gained power after the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse, now have control of a vast majority of the capital city as police have become overwhelmed by the attacks.

Doctors Without Borders Condemn Latest Attack on Haiti Hospital

Following the attack by the 20 armed men, Doctors Without Borders, also known as Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), released a statement strongly condemning the assault.

"There is such contempt for human life among the conflicting parties, and such violence in Port-au-Prince, that even the vulnerable, sick and wounded are not spared," Mahaman Bachard Iro, head of MSF's programs in Haiti said in a statement.

He added, "How are we, the health workers, supposed to be able to continue providing care in this environment? We must first understand what has happened and give our abused medical staff some respite, because these men threatened to kill them."

The international aid organization, which provides medical aid in areas of conflict like Ukraine and Haiti by providing medical personnel and medicines, then called on the many gangs responsible for the conflicts around the Haitian capital to "respect medical facilities so that they can continue to function."

Doctors Without Borders then vowed that it will remain "determined to stand by the Haitian people, who are the primary victims of the serious deterioration in the country's security situation in recent years."

Doctors Without Borders Attacked in Haiti Before

This is just the latest attack on the aid organization, with another incident happening earlier this year in a different hospital in Port-au-Prince. This attack happened last January at Cite Soleil, an impoverished neighborhood on the outskirts of the capital.

According to DW, the organization was forced to reduce its operations in the neighborhood after the attack, leaving it with only one private hospital and one MSF operation.

The Doctors Without Borders operation tried to move its patients as gangs were fighting in the area. However, a child who was on oxygen died in the security room that the patients were moved to. A 70-year-old man was also shot as he tried to cross the street across from the hospital where the aid organization was operating.