On Friday, 17 October, European Commissioner for Equality, Preparedness and Crisis Management Hadja Lahbib lamented the permanent closure of an emergency medical centre that the NGO Doctors Without Borders (MSF) ran in the city centre of Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti.
“I reiterate [MSF’s] call for all parties to respect humanitarian [and] medical aid workers. Their safety is essential to saving lives”, Mrs Lahbib declared on the social network X.
The health facility’s doors had already been temporarily closed since last March, and it temporarily suspended its operations following a serious incident targeting MSF. On Wednesday, 15 October, the NGO confirmed the facilities were permanently closing following regular violence [in the area].
“The building has already been hit several times by stray bullets due to its location close to the combat zones, which would make resuming activities too dangerous for both patients and staff,” Jean-Marc Biquet, the head of the MSF mission in Haiti, declared in a press release. (Original version in French by Bernard Denuit)