I am a doctor in Haiti’s capital, Port-au- Prince, hearing gunfire as armed groups and police battle for control of our city.
This kind of fighting began several years ago, but, since earlier this year, it has become increasingly violent, like a war. On Feb. 28, it was announced that elections could be postponed until August 2025. Armed civilian groups reacted by uniting against the government, attacking police stations, administrative offices, banks, port and airport facilities and other state institutions. This prevented the prime minister from returning to Haiti, given that airports were closed.
The violence is like gangrene, spreading and threatening us all.
Throughout the city, many people have fled because their homes were burned down or looted by groups that attacked their neighbourhoods. More areas of the city are emptying out as the conflict progresses. Tens of thousands of people are sheltering in schools, churches or sports fields in undignified conditions with little privacy.
Others remain in homes that have become unlivable, exposed to crossfire and looting. Recent violence made it more difficult to access drinking water in some neighbourhoods because water trucks could not resupply them.
NEED FOR IMMEDIATE HUMANITARIAN RESPONSE
The situation in Port-au-Prince today is a humanitarian crisis and it demands an immediate response, especially for vital needs, including healthcare, water and sanitation.
I manage an MSF mobile clinic that provides healthcare in some of the chronically violence-affected neighbourhoods. We see the direct and indirect effects of violence on the health of our patients. These include adults struggling to manage chronic illnesses such as diabetes and children with fevers and diarrhea. Extreme stress often causes mental trauma or hypertension. Many people have skin infections due to a lack of water for hygiene.
Our team visited a neighbourhood near the city centre on March 19, where we hadn’t had access since Feb. 29. The medical needs there are very high and likely to grow because healthcare is limited. For example, we saw patients suffering from tuberculosis who do not feel safe to leave the neighbourhood for treatment because of conflicts and tension between different zones. Barricades and fighting across Port-au-Prince have also prevented our mobile clinic staff from going to work, leaving patients in a vulnerable situation.
SUPPORTING SURVIVORS OF SEXUAL VIOLENCE
The women we have seen in our mobile clinics in recent months are often survivors of violence, including rape. Many are pregnant or have a sexually transmitted infection. As a doctor and as a woman, I can tell many are afraid to talk about it because the threat is still in the community. Social stigma also makes survivors reluctant to come forward because they do not want their families and neighbours to know what happened to them. We do everything we can to make survivors feel safe when they confide in us and accompany them to our specialized clinic for treatment of sexual violence.
The violence is also preventing patients and staff from reaching medical facilities on a daily basis. Some hospitals, such as Haiti’s State University hospital, cannot currently function. Another university hospital, Saint-François de Sales, has been completely vandalized and doctors can no longer complete their training there. The only public university hospital in operation is La Paix, but it is often overloaded and lacks resources. Tragically, more patients with emergency needs, including high-risk pregnancies, may die as a result.
Those of us still in Haiti are doing our best to serve the community but we also need care … because we are witnessing so much violence and cruelty.
Like other professionals, healthcare workers have been individually targeted by violence as the situation has worsened. Doctors, nurses and other medical staff have left the country for the United States and elsewhere. Now there aren’t many of us left.
Haiti’s main port and airport were closed for months and the Dominican Republic has tightened restrictions on the border. Given the turmoil, the departure of professionals from Haiti, including doctors and other healthcare workers, could accelerate as travel becomes possible again.
Those of us still in Haiti are doing our best to serve the community but we also need care, especially mental health support, because we are witnessing so much violence and cruelty.
We’d like to be able to regain at least the serenity we had a few years ago. Today, we work, go home and lock ourselves in a cage. I’m convinced all my Haitian brothers and sisters will unite with me in saying that right now we want to live our lives. It’s a right we’ve lost.
