Haiti: MSF appalled by killing of patient

White flag with red logo of Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) against sunny blue sky

© Valérie Batselaere/MSF

Benoit Vasseur, MSF head of mission in Haiti, issued the following statement today in response to a recent incident in Port-au-Prince:

On Sunday, August 14, at about 11 p.m., a group of armed men burst into the Raoul Pierre Louis hospital in the Carrefour area of Port-au-Prince. In an emergency room supported by Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), these men with firearms seized a patient and then coldly executed him just outside the hospital. 

We are appalled by the barbarity of this killing which violates our humanitarian principles and the protection that this patient should have had in this hospital. This took place as we are planning to open an emergency center in this area, west of Martissant, in 2023. MSF continues to call on the armed actors in Haiti to respect medical services, including the wounded and the staff who treat them, the facilities that receive them and the ambulances that transport them.