Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) condemns in the strongest terms the deaths of several patients, executed on 11 November 2024, after an MSF ambulance carrying three young people with gunshot wounds was forced to stop by Haitian police and members of a citizen self-defense brigade, about 100 metres from the MSF hospital in Drouillard and forced the ambulance to transfer to a public hospital in Port-au-Prince.

After an attempted arrest and shots fired in the air, the police escorted the ambulance to La Paix hospital. At the scene, law enforcement officers and members of the citizen brigade surrounded the ambulance, slashed the tyres and tear-gassed the MSF staff inside the vehicle to force them out. They then took the wounded a little further away, outside the hospital grounds, where they shot at least two of them.

MSF staff in the ambulance were violently attacked, insulted, tear-gassed, threatened with death and held against their will for more than four hours before being allowed to leave. The MSF ambulance was damaged and was no longer roadworthy, and the entire team left in a second vehicle.

"This act is a shocking display of violence, both for the patients and for MSF medical personnel, and it seriously calls into question MSF’s ability to continue delivering essential care to the Haitian people, which is in dire need," said Christophe Garnier, Head of Mission. "Our teams and our patients need a minimum level of safety to continue providing medical care."

We call on the authorities and all stakeholders to respect the right to access medical care without discrimination or hindrance, and to guarantee the protection of patients, as well as respect for medical staff and health facilities in the face of increasing violence.

HL/ HaitiLibre