Haiti's online media association said two reporters were killed and several others wounded in a suspected gang attack Tuesday on the reopening of Port-au-Prince's largest public hospital.
Street gangs took over about 85% of Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince, and they forced the closure of a general hospital earlier this year. Authorities promised to reopen the facility on Tuesday, but as reporters gathered to cover the event, suspected gang members opened fire in a brutal Christmas Eve attack.
Robeste Dimanche, spokesperson for the Online Media Collective, identified the dead journalists as Markenzie Natu and Jimmy Gina. Dimanche said an unspecified number of reporters were also injured in the attack, which he blamed on a coalition of Viv Ansanm groups.
Adeline Joseph / AP
Haiti Interim President Leslie Voltaire said in an address to the nation that journalists and police were among the victims of the attack. He did not specify the number of dead and did not give information about the dead and wounded.
“I express my condolences to the people who became victims, to the national police and to the journalists,” Voltaire said, promising that “this crime will not go unpunished.”
In a video published online by journalists who were in the hospital, two lifeless bodies of men can be seen on a stretcher with bloodied clothes. One of the men had a press ID lanyard around his neck.
Radio Télé Métronome initially reported that seven journalists and two police officers were injured. Police and officials did not immediately respond to requests for information about the attack.
Street gangs forced the closure of a general hospital earlier this year amid violence that also targeted Haiti's main international airport and two of its largest prisons. Federal Aviation Administration suspended last month US airlines have refused to fly to Haiti after three planes were shot at by gangs as they were arriving or departing from Port-au-Prince.
Authorities promised to reopen the facility on Tuesday, but as reporters gathered to cover the event, suspected gang members opened fire.
A video posted online earlier showed journalists inside the building and at least three people lying on the floor, apparently injured. This video also could not be immediately verified.
Johnson “Isa” Andre, considered Haiti's most powerful gang leader and part of the gang known as Viv Ansanm, which has taken control of much of Port-au-Prince, posted a video on social media claiming responsibility for the attack.
In the video, it is said that the gang coalition did not authorize the re-opening of the hospital.
Journalists used to be targeted in Haiti. In 2023, two local journalists were killed within a matter of weeks, with radio reporter Doumeski Kersaint fatally wounded in mid-April of that year, and journalist Rico Jean found dead later that month.
In July former prime minister Harry Conil visited the State University of Haiti Hospital, better known as the General Hospital, after the authorities regained control of it from the gangs.
The hospital was destroyed and filled with debris. Walls and nearby buildings were riddled with bullets, signaling clashes between police and gangs. The hospital is across the street from the National Palace, the scene of several battles in recent months.
Gang attacks have pushed Haiti's health care system to collapse, with looting, arson and destruction of medical facilities and pharmacies in the capital. The violence has led to an increase in the number of patients and a lack of resources to treat them.
Haiti's health care system faces additional challenges during the rainy season, which can increase the risk of water-borne diseases. Poor conditions in the camps and temporary settlements have increased the risk of diseases such as cholera, with more than 84,000 suspected cases in the country, according to UNICEF.