Doctors Without Borders condemns police killing of ambulance patients in Haiti

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Doctors Without Borders (MSF) condemned on Wednesday the murder of two wounded people by Haitian police and self-defense groups who were transported to hospital in the capital Port-au-Prince by ambulance.

In a statement released in Geneva, Médecins Sans Frontières said it “strongly condemns the murder of at least two patients who were executed after an Médecins Sans Frontières ambulance was stopped by members of a vigilante group and police officers.”

It was said that the ambulance personnel were also attacked.

The attack occurred on Monday, Doctors Without Borders said.

One of the ambulances, which was carrying three young people with gunshot wounds, was forced by police to go to a public hospital instead of the Médecins Sans Frontières center.

“Once there, police officers and members of a self-defense group surrounded the ambulance, slashed the tires and used MSF personnel inside the vehicle to force them out,” the NGO said.

“They then took the wounded patients a short distance away, outside the hospital grounds, where at least two of them were executed.”

The ambulance staff was then violently attacked and held for more than four hours, said Doctors Without Borders.

MSF condemned this “shocking display of violence” and said the incident raised “serious doubts” about its ability to care for Haitians, said Christophe Garnier, MSF's head of operations.

“Our teams and our patients require a minimum level of safety to continue providing medical care.”

Haiti has suffered from decades of political instability, but the Caribbean country has seen a rise in violence in recent months, with gangs now controlling 80 percent of the capital.

These groups, accused of multiple murders, rapes, looting and kidnappings for ransom, decided earlier this year to join forces to overthrow then-Prime Minister Ariel Henry.

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