Haitian police accused of attacking ambulance, killing patients

Haitian law enforcement, along with members of a vigilante group, attacked, kidnapped, and tear-gassed medical humanitarian workers on Monday in Port-au-Prince, Doctors Without Borders said Wednesday. Police executed at least two of the patients who were being transported and held medical personnel captive for over four hours, the group alleged. Christophe Garnier, the head of Doctors Without Borders’ Haiti mission, called the violence shocking and said it prompts serious questions about the organization’s ability to continue delivering essential care to locals in need.

Why would Haitian police do this? Police and a vigilante group stopped the ambulance outside the Doctors Without Borders facility. They fired gunshots into the air, and attempted to arrest the three patients inside the ambulance, who were already suffering from gunshot wounds, the organization said. Police then re-routed the ambulance away from the facility to a public hospital about an hour away. Once at the second hospital, police slashed the ambulance's tires and tear-gassed the passengers inside. The attackers then took the wounded patients a short distance and executed at least two of them, Doctors Without Borders said. After the aid workers in the ambulance were attacked, insulted, and threatened with death, authorities allowed them to leave in a secondary vehicle, according to the humanitarian group's statement. Doctors Without Borders called on all authorities to reaffirm the right to medical care without hindrance and to ensure patients and medical staff are safe as violence continues to rise.

Gangs seized control of the nation’s capital of Port-au-Prince earlier this year by overrunning police stations and freeing over 4,000 inmates from Haiti’s two largest prisons. Kenyan forces launched an international security support mission backed by the United States and the United Nations in June. However, violence continued plaguing the island and gangs now control a majority of the capital city according to the UN.

The ambulance ambush came the same week the U.S. Embassy in Haiti predicted a spike in violence. The country’s main airport in Port-au-Prince also closed down on Monday as gangs attempted to lock down the capital city, according to the U.S. Embassy in Haiti. The unrest prompted the Federal Aviation Administration on Tuesday to ban U.S. airlines from landing in Haiti for about a month after commercial flights were damaged by gangster gunfire.

Dig deeper: Read my report for more on the FAA ban.