PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) – Gunmen attacked and partially destroyed a hospital in Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti, a hospital director told Reuters on Tuesday (17), amid a wave of violence that led to the organization Doctors Without Borders to suspend its operations in Haiti last month.
The men set fire to the Bernard Mevs hospital on Monday night (16), destroying four operating rooms and all laboratory equipment, said the hospital director, who asked not to be identified.
No patients or staff were injured in the attack because the hospital had been evacuated following threats from a local gang leader.
The UN humanitarian affairs agency warned this year that Haiti’s health system was “near collapse”, with violence increasingly endangering doctors and medical services.
Later on Tuesday, Haiti’s interim government said in a statement that it “strongly condemns” the attack on the hospital, adding that resources will be provided to allow the facility to resume operations, promising to deploy police to ensure its safety.
Last month, the humanitarian aid group Doctors Without Borders was forced to temporarily halt operations in Port-au-Prince following an attack on one of its ambulances and subsequent harassment and threats from police. The organization partially resumed operations last week.
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The hospital confirmed, through a message on the messaging platform WhatsApp, that it had suffered an attack.
The Haitian government, torn by internal political disputes, has struggled to contain the growing power of gangs in and around the capital. Armed groups are accused of indiscriminate killings, rapes, kidnappings for ransom and fueling food shortages.
(Reporting by Harold Isaac and Aida Pelaez-Fernandez)
