Horror stories from Haiti: “Our ambulance was surrounded, they took the patient out and shot him”

Living on garbage. Spending a night enduring a bullet for fear of going to a health center and dying trying. Escape from the windows because you never know if a shot will come from there. Water, missing. And if there is, it is not enough or is not needed. Hospitals are closed because a “war” surrounds them. People lost their homes. And there are 360 ​​thousand displaced people… Haiti, once again, sinks into helland no one seems to be looking.

“There are many humanitarian crises in the world right now, but here what we are seeing is an acute crisis like those, but without the contribution of the international community as it should be,” he laments in an interview Clarion the surgeon Giacomo Ganafrom Port-au-Prince.

Dr. Gana, who passed through Yemen and Sierra Leone, is the medical reference of the Doctors Without Borders project (MSF) in Haiti.

Today it is in the neighborhood of Turgeauin the capital of Haiti, Port-au-Prince, a city invaded by criminal gangs, whose latest undertaking was to overthrow the government of the questioned Prime Minister Ariel Henry, in a context of brutal anarchy and violence.

“The situation at the moment is critical. There are several entire neighborhoods in Port-au-Prince that are They are kidnapped by the clashes. We are seeing an increasing number of people displaced by violence and insecurity. This already has an impact more than 360 thousand people”, describes the surgeon.

The doctor continues with a story that shouldn’t exist. “People live in precarious conditions, without access to basic health services,” he says. And he continues: “We also see a situation of healthcare system now on the verge of collapseAnd he adds: “There are important hospitals that are closed due to violence, medical staff do not feel safe in health centers. There are hospitals that have difficulty finding medicines or fuel for generators…”

-A few days ago he appeared in Pétion-Ville a large number of corpses in the streets. Is this a common thing?

-In fact, a few days ago in Pétion-Ville a large number of corpses appeared on the streets. These are events that are happening here. I can’t tell you the number of deaths, but I can tell you that in our centers we see a significant number of people suffering from violent trauma. And our studies prove it people die from violent trauma in Haiti.

The Doctors Without Borders team it has no special security Some. There are approximately 215 people who, like the rest of the population, are at the mercy of violence. Its only “shield” is its long history in the country and being a humanitarian organization.

“For security we rely on the fact that we have a long history with Haiti since the 1990s. We are a principled medical-humanitarian organization and therefore we have community support, (but) we do not have specific security,” he says.

However, community support it is not always enough.

“The situation is very unstable last week Several times we had to move away from the windows and look for a safer place in the hospital to wait for the shooting to end. Many times we hear gunshots near our center. But this is happening all over Port-au-Prince,” says Gana.

December 12 was another atrocious day: “We had to urgently transfer a patient to another health center. Not far from us. Our ambulance was surrounded People forced their way in, took the patient out and shot him”.

Dr. Gana also recalls the case of a young woman, “a few days ago, who suffered gunshot wounds during the night, she did not feel comfortable going to the center until the next day. There are many such stories.

The main hospital in Haiti is closed. “It is closed – explains the surgeon – because there were clashes nearby, the staff did not feel comfortable arriving at the hospital and they had no medical supplies. “It’s the same with other health centers.”

Compared to previous years, for the doctor the situation today “is even more difficult”.

“Access to water It is not guaranteed either in quantity or quality. And we already know that this can bring infectious diseases as we have already seen in Haiti.”

Another problem is the lack of waste management, he continues. “It’s not easy to say, though There are people who practically live on top of the garbage”.

Gaza, Yemen, Sudan… Dr. James Gana admits that “there are many humanitarian crises in the world right now, but here “We do not see an adequate response from the international community.”.