Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has introduced the suspension of its actions on the Turgeau emergency middle and the Carrefour trauma hospital in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, for at least three months as a result of worsening safety state of affairs within the capital.
The choice comes after a focused assault on MSF’s convoy on March 15, 2025, which was touring between the 2 medical facilities. The convoy, clearly recognized as MSF, was intentionally shot at whereas utilizing the one entry highway linking the 2 websites. MSF automobiles have been hit by at the very least 15 bullets, forcing the group to halt its use of this route for transportation and medical deliveries.
“The Turgeau emergency centre and the Carrefour trauma hospital are intently linked of their operations. With out the potential for utilizing this highway to switch sufferers, transport personnel or ship medical provides, these buildings can not perform,” stated Benoît Vasseur, MSF’s head of mission in Haiti. “For this reason we’ve got additionally been compelled to withdraw from Carrefour as of 9 April 2025. That is a particularly painful choice, at a time when individuals’s important medical wants proceed to develop.”
MSF had already evacuated the Turgeau middle on the identical day of the assault because the combating across the space escalated, with stray bullets touchdown throughout the compound every day. Between January and March 2025, the 2 services had handled greater than 750 victims of violent trauma, alongside 3,600 emergency instances, serving as the one free medical possibility for native populations affected by violence, highway accidents, and home incidents.
MSF continues work in different elements of Haiti
Regardless of the suspension on the Turgeau and Carrefour hospitals, MSF continues to offer medical providers at different places in Port-au-Prince and the southern area of Haiti. The Tabarre trauma reference middle stays operational, providing look after victims of extreme burns, accidents, and violence. In Cité Soleil, Hôpital Drouillard maintains a 24-hour emergency service, together with therapy for survivors of sexual and gender-based violence. MSF additionally continues to supply medical and psychological look after victims of sexual violence via the Pran Males’m clinic, which operates in Delmas and on the Isaïe Jeanty maternity hospital.
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Within the south, MSF is offering emergency obstetric and neonatal care, together with maternal well being providers in areas like Port-à-Piment. Nevertheless, as a result of ongoing safety dangers, medical transport has been suspended for all MSF groups inside Port-au-Prince.
MSF’s work in Haiti spans over three a long time, offering important assist throughout main crises, together with earthquakes, hurricanes, and cholera outbreaks. Nevertheless, current violence and repeated assaults towards medical workers have made it more and more tough for the group to function safely. In November 2024, MSF needed to briefly droop all operations in Port-au-Prince because of threats and assaults towards its workers.
“The intense struggling of individuals in Haiti makes this choice all of the extra heartbreaking, however a lifeless or injured physician or nurse can do nothing for sufferers in want,” Vasseur stated. “We reiterate our enchantment to all events involved to respect the medical mission and make sure the safety of well being buildings, ambulances, sufferers and workers.”
MSF continues to be awaiting the outcomes of the investigations carried out by Haitian authorities relating to these incidents. The group has as soon as once more known as for the safety of medical personnel and services.
