Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières shut down a hospital in Haiti’s capital Friday after the organization said a group of armed men stormed the facility and kidnapped a gunshot victim.
About 20 masked gunmen rushed the Port-au-Prince hospital Thursday after two men had feigned injuries in order to get the facility to open its gate. The assailants then forcibly removed the gunshot victim from the operating room.
“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 Médecins Sans Frontières programs in Haiti, said in a press release.
Mr. Iro said the gunmen threatened to kill medical staff during their raid, prompting the decision to shut down the hospital. He did not give a timeline on when or if the facility will reopen.
The ongoing unrest in Haiti has caused the organization to cut services in the Port-au-Prince area. That includes shutting down its emergency center in Martissant in 2021 and suspending assistance to Raoul Pierre-Louis Hospital in Carrefour in January this year.
Haiti has been racked by violence since President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated in July 2021.
Criminal gangs have taken over 60% of Port-au-Prince in the two years since then, with kidnappings and armed attacks being regularly carried out against warring factions and Haitian citizens, authorities say.
• Matt Delaney can be reached at mdelaney@washingtontimes.com.
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