A heavily armed gang broke into a hospital in Haiti on Wednesday and took hundreds of women, children and newborns hostage, according to the director of the medical center who appealed for help via the media social.
Jose Ulysse, founder and director of the Fontaine Hospital Center in the sprawling Cité Soleil slum in the capital Port-au-Prince, confirmed the incident in a brief exchange of messages with The Associated Press. “We are in great difficulty,” he said.
No further details were immediately available, and it was not clear why the attackers took the patients hostage. Mr. Ulysse did not respond to further requests for comment.
The hospital is seen as an oasis and a lifeline in a community overrun by gangs who have unleashed increasingly violent attacks on each other, with civilians who live in Cité Soleil regularly raped, beaten or killed .
Mr. Ulysse identified those responsible as members of the Brooklyn gang, led by Gabriel Jean-Pierre, better known as “Ti Gabriel.” Gabriel Jean-Pierre is also the leader of a powerful gang alliance known as G-Pep, one of two rival coalitions in Haiti.
The Brooklyn gang has some 200 members and controls certain communities in Cité Soleil, including Brooklyn. It is involved in extortion, diversion of goods and general violence against civilians, according to a recent UN report.
“The G-Pep coalition and its allies have significantly strengthened their cooperation and diversified their income, in particular by carrying out kidnappings for ransom, which allowed them to strengthen their combat capacity,” the report indicates.
When The Associated Press visited the Fontaine Hospital Center earlier this year, Mr. Ulysse said in an interview that gangs had already targeted him personally twice.
Since the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in July 2021, gangs have continued to gain power in Haiti, and the number of kidnappings and assassinations is increasing.
Earlier this year, at least 20 armed gang members burst into a hospital run by Doctors Without Borders and kidnapped a patient from an operating room. The criminals had entered the hospital by simulating a life-threatening emergency, the organization said.