Panic prevails in Haiti because of gang clashes that occurred at the door of the Port-au-Prince hospital. Those inside had to be evacuated, its director told AFP.
José Ullis, founder and director of the Fontaine Hospital Center, denied reports that gang members stormed the health facility and took patients hostage.
“There were no kidnappings,” says the manager
“No hostages were taken. We have a gang war on the outskirts of the hospital. Adjacent houses were set on fire“, explained the director.
“All the health staff were covered and we had to call the police to come and help us to evacuate everyone who couldn’t move on their own, including the women who had a caesarean section yesterday (i.e. the day before Tuesday) and couldn’t to march,” he continued, as reported by the Athens News Agency, citing AFP.
Many of the patients left on their own, he assured, but about “70 adults” and some “40 children“, including newborns, were quickly removed by the police and ambulances.
The small Caribbean nation has been wracked by gang violence, which is estimated to control 80% of the capital, with the number of serious crimes breaking records, according to the UN representative in the country.
In Cite Soleil, the country’s largest slum, a gang-controlled area, fierce armed clashes have been raging since Monday, following the death of an alleged gang leader.
According to an AFP correspondent, members of an elite police unit intervened yesterday to allow the hasty evacuation of those in hospital.
“We managed to move them all to safe locations,” Mr Ulis said, adding that the patients were housed in “slum heights” in a “private structure”, declining to elaborate.
Source: News Beast
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