Doctors without Borders shutters Haiti emergency clinic in ‘last resort’

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PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) -Doctors without Borders (MSF) said on Tuesday it is indefinitely closing an emergency clinic in Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince due to extended violent clashes in the area that threaten the safety of staff and patients.

MSF had suspended operations at health clinic in Turgeau, located near a high school and some government ministries, since March. During the evacuation, MSF said its clearly marked vehicles were deliberately targeted and shot at 15 times.

WHY IT’S IMPORTANT

Haiti is facing a years-long conflict with armed gangs that have taken over much of the capital, limiting the delivery of supplies, provision of services and safe travel of the three million people who live in the city’s metropolitan area.

The violence has caused many aid groups to leave or suspend operations in Haiti, further limiting options even as the country’s healthcare sector teeters on the brink of collapse.

KEY QUOTE

“For several weeks now, the area surrounding the center of Port-au-Prince has been the scene of regular armed violence,” MSF’s Head of Mission in Haiti Jean-Marc Biquet said in a statement, adding the clinic’s building had already been hit several times by stray bullets.

“MSF deeply regrets this difficult decision, which was taken as a last resort. This closure has a significant impact on access to healthcare for a population already severely affected by violence, instability and increasingly precarious living conditions,” he added.

CONTEXT

MSF said it was awaiting the signing of a memorandum of understanding that would establish a humanitarian corridor between the capital and Carrefour before it resumes medical activities between the suburb and downtown Port-au-Prince.

Its personnel have reported a series of attacks, including an incident last November when an ambulance was stopped, its staff threatened and patients killed, and another where a patient was forcibly removed from an ambulance and shot just a few steps away from the Turgeau clinic.

BY THE NUMBERS

The United Nations estimated that as of June, of 254 Haitian in-patient facilities assessed by the World Health Organization, just 13% were fully operational.

In the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area, just 5% of the 93 it assessed were fully functional.

(Reporting by Harold Isaac and Sarah Morland; Editing by Natalia Siniawski and Brendan O’Boyle)