Escalating gang violence in Haiti is once more forcing the closure of medical facilities.
Citing “intolerable risks,” the French medical charity Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières said Wednesday that ongoing violent clashes between armed gangs has left it with no choice but to temporarily close its hospital in Cité Soleil, the country’s largest slum, which is located in Port-au-Prince.
The announcement of the hospital’s temporary closure came two weeks after the international organization warned that it was becoming increasingly difficult to provide care in Haiti without putting staff and patients at risks, and on the same day that the Inter-American Human Rights Commission heard testimony about the widespread sexual violence being directed against women and girls in Haiti. Both took place as the Biden administration’s top official for the Western Hemisphere, Assistant Secretary of State Brian Nichols, flew to Port-au-Prince to meet with government officials and civil society leaders about the country’s protracted security and political crises.
