4 journalists, police officer killed by gangs at reopening of Haiti's largest hospital

Jacqueline Charles and Johnny Fils-Aimé, Miami Herald on Dec 24, 2024

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PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Four journalists and a police officer were killed Tuesday after armed gangs opened fire on them inside an old military hospital in Haiti’s capital. The attack also left at least six other people, several of them journalists and one police officer, with gunshot wounds.

The injured were being treated at La Paix Hospital after a specialized unit of the Haiti National Police went inside the facility that is part of the Hospital of the State University of Haiti, better known as the General Hospital, to rescue the wounded.

Police officers told waiting journalists that they had left four bodies on the ground; at least two of them were online journalists.

The tragedy unfolded while the press was awaiting the arrival of the minister of health to cover the reopening of the General Hospital, which had been closed for months because of gang attacks. As reporters waited inside, they could hear gunfire out in the streets, where two armored police vehicles were patrolling.

Inside, final arrangements were being made for the minister’s visit. That’s when several armed men stormed the area outside and opened fire.

In a video shared online, long volleys of gunfire could be heard as bullets flew through the green iron gates of the General Hospital.

Other photos and videos shared online by some of the reporters trapped inside showed journalists lying on the floor covered in blood, with gunshots wounds to the head, chest and mouths. In one video, a journalist showed where a bullet had pierced his tongue.

“We haven’t found a nurse or anyone to give us first aid, anything,” a journalist who was not injured said as she pleaded for help. “Those who are the most vulnerable, we want to get them out of here.”

But getting out of the area proved difficult as police exchanged gunfire with gang members.

“The whole area is under siege,” Guy Delva, head of the press freedom group SOS journalists, said before police moved in to rescue the trapped reporters. “Bandits are shooting all around. If the journalists go out into the street, they will be killed and no one is helping them. The situation is very worrisome. They are stranded.”

Delva blamed the Haitian government for the incident, saying the attack is part of a larger problem in which journalists are being targeted by the police as well as gangs. Reporters have reported being harassed by police while on assignment. Earlier this year Haitian authorities issued a list of journalists they were seeking to arrest, claiming they were working with gangs.

Last month the country’s telecommunications authority, CONATEL, shut down a popular program, Boukante la Pawol, hosted by Guerrier Henri, on Port-au-Prince’s Radio Mega after Henri allowed gang leader Jimmy “Barbecue” Chérizier to speak. Delva said the move infringed on press freedoms and was a throwback to the days Haiti was ruled by dictators.

“Journalists have been working with a lot of fear,” he said. “They realize that the government doesn’t care. They not only try to block them but they openly show they won’t intervene to help them.”

The General Hospital, the country’s largest public medical facility, had been closed since March when a united front of powerful gang leaders led attacks on police stations as well as the main airport, seaport and prison with the hope of toppling the government.

Since then, the violence has continued to escalate, with hospitals across Port-au-Prince shutting down.

In July Haitian authorities claimed that they had taken control of the General Hospital. But days later, the country’s prime minister was forced to run for cover, along with police officers, when armed gangs opened fire as he was giving a tour of the facility to visiting CNN journalists.

The Christmas Eve attack added to an avalanche of bad news for Haiti. As the attack was happening in Port-au-Prince, authorities in the northwest region confirmed the deaths of at least seven people from torrential rains that continued to hit the city of Port-de-Paix on Tuesday. Officials said that 10 others had been injured, while at least 100 houses had been destroyed and 500 others seriously damaged. About 11,000 houses were flooded and 20 vehicles were swept away. A bridge, constructed less than six months ago, also collapsed.

On Monday, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, issued a statement about Haiti’s escalating crisis. Her statements as president of the U.N. Security Council came on the same day the U.N. political office in Haiti issued a report on a recent gang massacre in the Wharf Jérémie neighborhood in the capital.

The report said at least 207 people, most of them elderly, were targeted by a gang leader earlier this month after he accused them of using witchcraft to make his son sick.

The security council, Thomas-Greenfield said, is deeply concerned over the deteriorating situation in Haiti.