Port-au-Prince – Faced with unsustainable security risks, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has been forced to close its hospital in the Cité Soleil area of the Haitian capital as a temporary measure. Violence has been spreading throughout Port-au-Prince since 28 February, leaving those caught in the crossfire with no choice but to flee.

With violent clashes between heavily armed rival groups taking place just metres from the hospital compound, MSF is no longer able to guarantee the safety of patients or staff.

“We are looking at a war scene just metres away from our hospital,” says Vincent Harris, MSF medical advisor. “While the hospital has not been targeted, we are a collateral victim of the fighting, since the hospital is right on the frontline of the fighting.

“We realise that closing the hospital will have a serious impact on the people of Cité Soleil, but our teams cannot work until security conditions are guaranteed,” says Harris.

Large numbers of stray bullets have entered the hospital compound, while reaching the hospital is currently almost impossible for the sick and wounded, some of whom have been injured in the battles nearby. 

MSF teams have worked in Haiti for more than 30 years. We have publicly called for fighting around the hospital to stop and for medical activities to be respected, so that staff can restart their work as soon as possible and continue providing healthcare to the people of Cité Soleil. 

We are concerned that the current upsurge of violence in the Haitian capital is happening while local people face ever greater humanitarian and health needs.

Meanwhile, patient numbers have increased significantly at MSF’s emergency centre in Turgeau, in central Port-au-Prince, 10 km from Cité Soleil. In recent days, our teams have admitted up to 10 times the usual number of people with gunshot wounds. 

“Since the fighting resumed in the neighbourhood of Bel Air on 28 February, we have received many children, women and elderly people,” says Dr Freddy Samson, MSF medical activity manager. “It's terrible to see the number of collateral victims of these clashes. It’s hard to tell how many people are wounded in total across the city because many people are too terrified to leave their neighbourhoods.”

MSF teams running mobile clinics in areas at the centre of the recent violence have witnessed the armed clashes firsthand, forcing them to abruptly end medical consultations. Many people have fled the fighting and sought shelter in informal sites, which have quickly become overcrowded. 

Our teams carried out assessments in neighbourhoods located in the city centre and observed the critical needs of a large number of displaced people at risk of being hit by stray bullets, living in dire conditions and with limited access to clean drinking water.

Fighting has spread to every neighbourhood in Port-au-Prince. Everyone in the capital faces an extremely difficult situation. 

“The violence is getting closer and closer,” says an MSF staff member. “They are shooting at our house – my upstairs neighbours found a stray bullet in the stairs. Many people are evacuating the area. We have seen people of all ages leaving. I myself was forced to leave with my family and take refuge at a friend's house.”

Despite the temporary closure of the MSF hospital in Cité Soleil and the deteriorating security situation in the capital, our teams remain committed to assisting the Haitian people, the principal victims of the violence that has been tearing the country apart for years. 

We continue to treat victims of violence and burns at Tabarre, victims of sexual violence in Delmas 33 and in the Department of Artibonite, victims of serious accidents in the emergency centre of Turgeau, pregnant women and their babies in the South Department as well as people affected by urban violence through mobile clinics.