Haiti: Doctors Without Borders outraged by attack on its ambulance and execution of patients

13/11/2024

Haiti

On 11 November, a Doctors Without Borders ambulance transporting three young people with gunshot wounds was stopped by Haitian police about one hundred meters from the Doctors Without Borders hospital in the Drouillard area of Port-au-Prince and was forced to proceed with a transfer to a public hospital. After an attempt to arrest the patients and firing shots in the air, the police escorted the ambulance to Hôpital La Paix. Once there, law enforcement officers and members of a self-defense group surrounded the ambulance, slashed the tires, and tear-gassed Doctors Without Borders personnel inside the vehicle to force them out. They then took the wounded patients a short distance away, outside the hospital grounds, where at least two of them were executed.

The Doctors Without Borders personnel in the ambulance were violently attacked, insulted, tear-gassed, threatened with death, and held against their will for more than four hours before being allowed to leave. The Doctors Without Borders ambulance was damaged and left unable to drive, so the team departed in a second vehicle.

This act is a shocking display of violence, both for the patients and for Doctors Without Borders medical personnel, and it seriously calls into question Doctors Without Borders’ ability to continue delivering essential care to the Haitian population, which is in dire need. Our teams and our patients need a minimum level of safety to continue providing medical care.

Christophe Garnier, Head of Mission

Doctors Without Borders is a humanitarian organization serving the Haitian population, addressing medical needs in primary healthcare, trauma care, and support for survivors of sexual violence. We call on the authorities and all stakeholders to uphold the right to access medical care without discrimination or hindrance and to ensure the protection of patients, as well as respect for medical personnel and healthcare facilities in the face of increasing violence.

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