Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) strongly condemns the intentional opening of fire upon four of its vehicles while they were seeking safety for their staff amid escalating violence in Port au Prince, Haiti. The escalating violence close to the Turgeau Emergency Centre has forced MSF to suspend again its activities in the hospital on the 15th of March and evacuate its teams from the hospital as a precautionary measure. During one of the evacuation movements, the MSF identified convoy was repeatedly and intentionally fired upon, despite prior coordination with authorities. While fortunately no one was killed, our staff suffered minor injuries.
“This attack serves as stark reminder that no one is safe amidst the ongoing violence between armed groups and law enforcement. Despite our precautions, we have been targeted and this is unacceptable. We urgently call on all parties for the respect of medical staff, facilities and patients at all times,”
Benoit Vasseur, Head of Mission for MSF in Haiti
Since end of February, the situation in Turgeau, where MSF runs a Referral and Emergency Centre, has worsened sharply. On March 12 alone, our Emergency Centre treated 27 victims of violence, including women and children, from the surrounding area. During the night of March 14-15, the violence escalated further. Armed groups moved within meters of the hospital, threatening to turn it into a frontline. “We had to make the painful decision to suspend activities at the MSF Turgeau Emergency Centre to protect our staff and patients. Currently, it is impossible to continue operations at the hospital, but we are committed to reopening our facility as soon as the situation allows us to do so safely,”says Benoit Vasseur.
Before suspending activities, MSF successfully referred all patients from the Emergency Centre to other medical facilities. Between February 24 and March 2, our teams at the Turgeau Emergency Centre treated 314 patients. In February 2025 alone, our teams conducted over 2,500 medical consultations and more than 400 physiotherapy sessions at the Turgeau Emergency Centre.
This is the second time in less than four months that MSF has been forced to suspend operations at the health facility. On November 22, 2024, MSF halted all activities in Port-au-Prince following multiple attacks and repeated threats against medical staff. After months of engagement with authorities and assurances from all parties regarding the protection of MSF’s medical mission, the organization partially resumed operations in January, reopening the Turgeau hospital on January 20, 2025.
However, the resurgence of violence and the deliberate attack on our vehicles during this evacuation make it clear that these assurances and engagements with authorities have failed to translate into real safety for our staff and patients.
Our MSF team has been providing emergency medical care in Turgeau since 2021. MSF maintains multiple medical programs in other areas of Port au Prince and Haiti, notably for maternal and newborn care, severe burns, trauma and victims of sexual violence. Continuing these vital medical services requires clear guarantees about the security of our movements.
MSF is an international, medical, humanitarian organisation that delivers medical care to people in need, regardless of their origin, religion, or political affiliation. MSF has been working in Haiti for over 30 years, offering general healthcare, trauma care, burn wound care, maternity care, and care for survivors of sexual violence.
