The international organization Doctors Without Borders has launched a desperate alert this Wednesday about the shortage of medicines in Haiti, the small Caribbean country that is facing a harsh political crisis and violence. The organization has reported the closure of more than 30 hospitals on the island, in addition to the lack of medicines that harm its work. “If we do not receive medical supplies in the next two weeks, we will be forced to drastically reduce our operations,” said Mumuza Muhindo Musubaho, MSF head of mission in Port-au-Prince. “We had to increase our capacity to cope with the influx of patients. Unfortunately, the enormous consumption of medicines means that we currently lack supplies,” he lamented.
The critical situation in Haiti has mobilized the international community to prevent its total collapse. The crisis it suffers worsened in 2021, after the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in his residence in Port-au-Prince at the hands of a commando made up of at least 28 hitmen. Since then there has been a power vacuum that has allowed the emergence of violent criminal gangs that spread terror on the island, mainly the capital, Port-au-Prince, whose territory, according to official sources, is 80% controlled by these groups. The UN has reported that more than 2,500 people died in the first quarter of the year due to violence, in an internal war that has gone beyond the control of the authorities. At the beginning of May, three former Latin American presidents asked for urgent help for Haiti and warned that it was “an open wound in Latin America.” The United States has considered the Haitian crisis “as important” as those in Ukraine or Gaza, and Washington is finalizing with Kenya the deployment of a multinational force to Haiti.
While this aid arrives, humanitarian organizations have warned of the critical situation suffered by the Haitian population. “The escalation of insecurity has seriously disrupted the medical operations we manage at Doctors Without Borders (MSF),” the organization reports in a statement. “We have not been able to import supplies since mid-March. The Haitian health system is severely affected, leaving the population without essential medical services amid continued violence and isolation. For this reason, Doctors Without Borders urgently call on the armed groups involved in the fighting and the authorities in charge of customs to facilitate the delivery of medical supplies to the civilian population that urgently needs them,” adds MSF.
The security crisis suffered by Haiti worsened in March, when the Government declared a state of emergency and a curfew in much of the country after thousands of prisoners escaped from the main prison in Port-au-Prince, following an assault by gangs. criminals who spread terror in the country. The authorities have recognized that the country is suffering “a degradation of security” after months of clashes between gangs. MFS has warned that more than 30 medical centers and hospitals have closed, including the largest, L’Hôpital de l’Université d’État d’Haïti, “due to vandalism, looting or being located in unsafe areas.” The agency also reports that the closure of the capital’s airport and ports since February “has left MSF medical facilities critically undersupplied.” Muhindo Musubah has warned that “in this emergency situation, customs procedures must be more flexible. “This way, medicines and other supplies can arrive as quickly as possible.”
MSF has stated in its statement that the Haitian population faces urgent medical and humanitarian needs. “People with chronic diseases, such as tuberculosis and HIV, are at high risk of worsening due to lack of access to medical services and life-saving medications. “Unsanitary conditions in the many displaced persons sites throughout Port-au-Prince increase the risk of water-borne diseases such as cholera,” MSF said.
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