Gunmen attack convoy evacuating medical staff after aid group in Haiti temporarily shutters hospital

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Doctors Without Borders said Monday that four of its vehicles came under fire while they evacuated staff from a hospital in Haiti’s capital as gang violence in the city surges.

The aid organization said the attack occurred after it decided to suspend services at the Turgeau Emergency Center on Saturday given “brutal street fighting” that was moving closer to the facility. It noted that one of its convoys “was repeatedly and intentionally fired upon, despite prior coordination with authorities.”

No one was killed, but staff members received minor injuries, said Benoit Vasseur, the group’s head of mission in Haiti.

“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,” he said.

Doctors Without Borders said it is the second time in less than four months that it has been forced to suspend operations at that health facility in Port-au-Prince.

The Turgeau Emergency Center was one of the few remaining hospitals in Haiti’s capital that was fully functional as gangs that control 85% of Port-au-Prince step up attacks in a bid to control more territory.

More than 5,600 people were killed across Haiti last year, with gang violence in recent years leaving more than one million people homeless, according to the U.N.