Attack on ambulance forces suspension of activities in Port-au-Prince emergency centre Haiti

“We need a minimum of safety to carry out our medical mission. We can’t work if our medical mission is threatened by violence,” says Benoît Vasseur, MSF’s Head of Mission in Haiti. “MSF is one of the very few international organisations delivering medical care in the capital.”

“We can’t accept that our ambulances are attacked, and our patients are beaten and killed,” says Vasseur. “To carry out our work, our medical facilities, our staff, and our patients must be respected.”

“We can see the Haitians are desperate and furious. They are subjected to terrible cruelties on a daily basis,” continues Vasseur. “We are direct witnesses of it: rape, torture, murder attempts. All our medical services are here to provide care to people in this midst of this violence.”

MSF is suspending indefinitely all of our activities in our Turgeau Emergency Centre. We will undertake an analysis of the attack, and re-evaluate the risk for our staff and patients.

MSF continues to offer free, high-quality healthcare in our other facilities: our hospital in Cité Soleil, our hospital in Tabarre which provides care for trauma and burns, and a clinic for vicitms and survivors of sexual violence in Delmas 33, Pran Men’m . Our mobile clinics continue to work in different areas of the city and in camps for displaced people. In the south of the country, our maternity clinic in Port-à-Piment also remains open.