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Ambulance patients murdered in Haiti attack, MSF says

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Doctors’ charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) says not less than two of its sufferers have been killed in Haiti after police and vigilantes attacked their ambulance within the capital Port-au-Prince.

The charity stated its crews had been transporting three sufferers with gunshot wounds to a MSF hospital on Monday once they had been stopped by authorities and compelled to go as an alternative to a public hospital.

When they arrived, officers and “members of a self-defence group” attacked the car, slashing its tyres and forcing occupants out by way of tear-gas.

The wounded sufferers had been then taken away from the hospital grounds the place “at least two of them were executed”, the charity stated.

It is unclear from MSF’s assertion the situation of the third affected person. But the group stated its ambulance employees had been additionally assaulted within the incident by “law enforcement officers and members of a self-defence group”.

MSF stated employees had been “violently attacked, insulted, tear-gassed, threatened with death” and held hostage for greater than 4 hours earlier than being launched. The motive behind the assault is unclear.

“The act is a shocking display of violence and it seriously calls into question MSF’s ability to continue delivering essential care to the Haitian people,” stated Christophe Garnier, the group’s head of mission within the nation.

MSF, also called Doctors Without Borders, is among the final humanitarian non-government organisations (NGOs) nonetheless working in Haiti, the place violent chaos has gripped the capital.

Since the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in 2021, armed gangs have seized energy in lots of areas, resulting in a spike in road violence within the poorest nation within the Americas.

A UN Security Council briefing final month heard that legal gangs had gained management of 85% of the capital.

More than 3,600 individuals have been killed in Haiti since January and greater than 500,000 have needed to go away their properties, based on the UN.

The UN has despatched a global policing operation to Haiti, largely made up of Kenyan police. The mission is claimed to have secured some key websites within the capital together with the nationwide hospital, seaport and airport.

However, a number of US airways suspended flights to the nation this week after three planes had been hit by gunfire approaching or departing the airport this week.

A brand new prime minister was sworn into workplace in Haiti earlier this week. Alix Didier Fils-Aimé stated his precedence was “restoring security” within the nation.

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