The NGO Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) announced on Tuesday the suspension of its activities in the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince, due to “violence and threats” from the Haitian police, after the police repeatedly stopped its vehicles and directly threatened its staff.
“At MSF we accept working in unsafe conditions, but when even law enforcement becomes a direct threat, we have no choice but to suspend the admission of patients in Port-au-Prince until the conditions are met to resume our activities,” said Christophe Garnier, MSF’s general coordinator in Haiti.
“Every day that we cannot resume our activities is a tragedy, as we are one of the few providers of a wide range of medical services that have remained open during this extremely difficult year. However, we can no longer continue to operate in an environment where our staff are at risk of being attacked, raped or even killed,” she lamented.
Last week, MSF accused Haitian security forces of executing two patients after one of the NGO’s ambulances carrying three gunshot wounds was stopped by officers and members of a paramilitary group in the capital. However, four other threatening incidents have occurred in recent days.
On Tuesday, two ambulances were stopped by authorities, who threatened to kill MSF staff in the near future. On Saturday, one of its drivers was verbally assaulted by plainclothes police officers who warned them of future attacks on ambulances. Also over the weekend, on Sunday, another ambulance was stopped and officers threatened to kill the patient.
This week, on Monday, a police vehicle driven by a plainclothes policeman armed with a gun stopped an MSF staff member and threatened to “execute and burn them.” This is in addition to the attacks against the NGO by armed men, according to a statement.
Canada has condemned the attack on MSF staff in Haiti on November 11 and said it is “deeply concerned about the impact of the increase in violence on the Haitian people.” “Humanitarian workers providing vital aid must be able to work in safety. They are not a target,” the Canadian Embassy in the Caribbean country said on its profile on the social network X. UN: OPERATIONS CONTINUE DESPITE “UNPREDICTABLE” CONDITIONS The United Nations has indicated that together with its partners it continues its efforts to ensure that aid reaches those who need it most in the face of the escalation of armed violence and “unpredictable” security conditions.
“Despite the temporary suspension of air transport, humanitarian operations remain active in the Port-au-Prince region, although security conditions are unpredictable. In addition, humanitarian and recovery actions continue uninterrupted in the rest of the country,” said the humanitarian coordinator in Haiti, Ulrika Richardson.
Since 11 November, an increase in attacks in the metropolitan area of Port-au-Prince has led to an increase in the displacement of almost 20,000 people. This situation is compounded by a context of extreme vulnerability, since half of the Haitian population is in a situation of severe food insecurity and there are more than 700,000 internally displaced people.
