Doctors Without Borders withdraw from two Haiti health centres after attack

The Doctors Without Borders (MSF) charity said Tuesday it was withdrawing from two emergency health centres in the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince following a recent attack on one of its convoys.

MSF said one of its convoys had suffered a targeted attack on March 15 while travelling between its Turgeau emergency centre and its Carrefour Trauma Hospital.

Following the attack, "the organisation has taken the difficult decision to withdraw from these two structures for a minimum period of three months", it said in a statement.

"This period will allow an assessment as to whether the evolving security context offers the necessary conditions for the return of MSF teams."

The poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, Haiti is politically unstable and the capital has for years languished under the control of rival armed gangs, which run protection rackets and carry out murders, rapes and kidnaps for ransom.

Armed groups have been battling for control of Port-au-Prince and clashes have intensified in recent weeks as the rival gangs attempt to establish new territories.

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At least 1,518 people were killed and 572 injured in Haiti just during the first three months of this year, due to attacks by gangs, security force operations and violence by self-defence groups, according to the UN.

Targeted attack

MSF said that on the day its convoy was attacked, it had already evacuated the Turgeau centre as the frontline of fighting "advanced dangerously close".

During the evacuation from Turgeau to Carrefour, "clearly identified MSF vehicles, using the only access road separating the two structures, were deliberately targeted by at least one hooded man in uniform", it said.

"The MSF vehicles were shot 15 times. The incident has forced MSF to stop using this route."

Benoît Vasseur, MSF's Head of Mission in Haiti, called the decision to withdraw "extremely painful" as the medical needs of the population were growing.

"Without the possibility of using this road to transfer patients, transport personnel or deliver medical supplies, these structures can no longer function," he said.

Before its withdrawal, MSF said it had noted "an alarming increase in the number of victims of violence" arriving at the two treatment centres.

A total of 550 people were treated there for violent trauma between January and March, the charity said.

The two medical facilities had also carried out over 3,600 medical consultations and treated an equal number of emergency cases over the same period, MSF said.

MSF has been working in Haiti for more than three decades and is still running services elsewhere in the capital and in the southern region.