“A situation similar to a civil war”, warns Doctors Without Borders

Faced with the crisis in Haiti, affected by daily violence from criminal gangs, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) announced on Wednesday March 6 the strengthening of its presence there. A decision taken as the situation becomes a little more tense in this Caribbean country. Tuesday March 5, the main gang leader, Jimmy Chérizier, alias “Barbecue”, who controls a large part of the capital Port-au-Prince, warned of a possible civil war. Sarah Chateau, in charge of MSF operations in Haiti, draws a parallel with other conflicts to franceinfo.

“The levels of exposure to violence in Haiti are quite equivalent to wars as we have seen from surveys that we would have carried out in Syria in 2014, in Iraq, with fairly similar mortality rates. So we are really already in a situation similar to a civil war”she warns, while nearly 5,000 people were killed in Haiti in 2023, more than double the number in 2022.

A second hospital opened to treat gunshot wounds

MSF’s on-site network is already substantial with four hospitals, several clinics and nearly 1,500 employees. But it was no longer enough, assures Sarah Chateau. “Since Thursday (last), we have received a massive influx of injured people, mainly gunshot wounds. So what we did was increase the reception capacity”explains the MSF operations manager in Haiti. “You have to imagine that we receive between 10 and 15 gunshot wounds per day. So we added around twenty beds and we also opened a second hospital to take care of gunshot wounds. It was planned that opens but we have accelerated the opening a little in order to increase our reception capacity”she explains.

Another clear sign of the reality of this war: the number of refugees. Nearly 15,000 people have had to flee Port-au-Prince in recent days according to the UN, which has started to distribute food and basic necessities to them.