Since last weekend, Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders is seeing a significant increase in the number patients wounded by stray bullets in its medical facilities in the capital. Since the start of violent clashes between armed groups in the peripheral neighbourhoods, MSF’s Emergency Center in Turgeau has seen almost 80 people with gunshot wounds, most of them by stray bullets.
In the neighbourhood of Cité Soleil, an MSF mobile clinic reached the area during a ceasefire. In a few hours, our medical teams carried out 150 consultations—30 of which were for people with infected wounds, meaning these were old wounds that weren’t treated before. This is likely because the wounded couldn’t get medical help, either because of the intensity of the ongoing fighting or because armed groups have erected roadblocks and barricades. In some areas, MSF can only treat patients in basements or windowless rooms because of the dangers of crossfire and stray bullets.
Since the increase in violence in several areas of Port-au-Prince—whether it’s in Cité Soleil, Martissant, or, most recently, Bel Air, Bas Delmas, and the fringes of the city center—MSF always observes a decrease in outpatient consultations.
