PORT-AU-PRINCE, (Reuters) – Armed men attacked and partially destroyed a hospital in Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince, a hospital director told Reuters yesterday, amid a wave of escalating violence that prompted Doctors Without Borders to suspend operations in Haiti last month.
The bandits set the Bernard Mevs hospital on fire on Monday night, destroying four operating rooms and all the laboratory equipment, said the hospital director, who asked not to be named.
No patients or staff were harmed in the assault because the hospital had been evacuated following threats from a local gang leader.The U.N. humanitarian affairs agency warned earlier this year that Haiti’s health system was “nearing collapse,” with violence increasingly putting doctors and medical services in harm’s way.
Last month, aid group Doctors Without Borders was forced to temporarily halt operations in Port-au-Prince after an attack on one of its ambulances and subsequent harassment and threats from police. The organization partially resumed operations last week.
The hospital confirmed through a message on the WhatsApp messaging platform that it had suffered an attack.
Haiti’s government, riven with political infighting, has struggled to contain gangs’ growing power in and around the capital. The armed groups are accused of indiscriminate killings, gang rapes, ransom kidnappings and fueling food shortages.