Haiti’s online media association said two journalists were killed and several others injured in a suspected gang attack Tuesday during the reopening of Port-au-Prince’s largest public hospital.
Street gangs took over about 85 percent of Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, and they forced the closure of the general hospital earlier this year. Authorities had pledged to reopen the facility on Tuesday, but as journalists gathered to cover the event, suspected gang members opened fire in a violent attack on Christmas Eve.
Robest Dimanche, spokesperson for the Online Media Collective, identified the deceased journalists as Markenzy Nathoux and Jimmy Jean. Dimanche said an unspecified number of journalists were also injured in the attack, which it blamed on the Viv Ansanm gang coalition.
Odelyn Joseph / AP
Haiti’s interim president, Leslie Voltaire, said in a speech to the nation that journalists and police were among the victims of the attack. He did not specify the number of victims, nor give the number of dead or injured.
“I extend my sympathies to the victims, the national police and journalists,” Voltaire declared, promising that “this crime will not go unpunished.”
Video posted online by journalists trapped inside the hospital showed what appeared to be two dead bodies of men on stretchers, their clothes bloodied. One of the men wore a lanyard with a press card around his neck.
Radio Télé Métronome initially reported that seven journalists and two police officers had been injured. Police and authorities did not immediately respond to calls for information about the attack.
Street gangs had forced the closure of the General Hospital earlier this year during violence that also targeted Haiti’s main international airport and two largest prisons. Federal Aviation Administration last month suspended U.S. airlines have banned flights to Haiti after three planes were fired on by gangs as they arrived or departed from Port-au-Prince.
Authorities had pledged to reopen the facility on Tuesday, but as journalists gathered to cover the event, suspected gang members opened fire.
Video posted online earlier showed journalists inside the building and at least three of them lying on the ground, apparently injured. This video also could not be immediately verified.
Johnson “Izo” André, considered Haiti’s most powerful gang leader and part of a gang known as Viv Ansanm, which took control of much of Port-au-Prince, posted a video on social media claiming responsibility for the attack.
The video indicates that the gang coalition did not allow the hospital to reopen.
Haiti has already seen journalists targeted. In 2023, two local journalists were killed in the space of a few weeks: radio journalist Dumesky Kersaint was fatally shot in mid-April of the same year, while journalist Ricot Jean was later found dead in the month.
In July, former Prime Minister Garry Conille visited the State University of Haiti hospital, better known as the General Hospital, after authorities regained control from gangs.
The hospital was ravaged and littered with debris. Nearby walls and buildings were riddled with bullets, signaling fighting between police and gangs. The hospital is opposite the national palace, the scene of several fighting in recent months.
Gang attacks have pushed Haiti’s health system to the brink of collapse with looting, burning and the destruction of medical facilities and pharmacies in the capital. The violence has created an increase in the number of patients and a lack of resources to treat them.
Haiti’s health system faces additional challenges during the rainy season, which may increase the risk of waterborne diseases. Poor conditions in the camps and makeshift settlements have increased the risk of diseases like cholera, with more than 84,000 suspected cases in the country, according to UNICEF.
