At least two people were killed and others wounded on Tuesday when armed men opened fire on a group of journalists attending a government press conference to announce the reopening of Haiti’s largest public hospital. A witness to the attack told Reuters.
A journalist present at the scene, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that a journalist and a police officer were killed.
Haiti’s national police did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for information.
The attack comes as armed gangs have gained territory in Haiti in the face of under-resourced security forces and little international response, and follows several mass killings in the capital and surrounding rural areas.
Haiti’s Transitional Presidential Council said in a post on Facebook that this act will not go without consequences.
“We express our sympathies to the families of all victims, especially the Haitian National Police and all journalists’ associations,” it said, without confirming the number of casualties.
Journalists were invited to arrive at the hospital in the downtown area of the capital, Port-au-Prince, beginning at 8 a.m. for a press conference with Haiti’s new health minister. They were still waiting for the minister when the shooting started around 11 am
Health Minister Dickenson Lorthe Blema was appointed in a cabinet reshuffle in November when former Prime Minister Gary Connelly was ousted after only six months in office.
The State University of Haiti Hospital, known locally as the General Hospital, is the country’s largest public hospital, but it has been closed since a surge in gang attacks in March, including the death of former Prime Minister Ariel Henry was forced out of power.
In July, authorities celebrated taking back control of the hospital with a press conference at the hospital, but Konile was forced to flee with security officers and journalists under gunfire.
The hospital is just a short walk from the central Champ de Mars square, an area that often sees shootouts and clashes between police and a citywide alliance of gangs called Viv Ansanam.
Gangs are estimated to control 80% to 90% of the capital, while neighboring countries have been slow to deliver on promises of security assistance to the Caribbean nation.
An international mission approved last year has seen only a few troops deployed so far, while Haitians have called for it to increase its resources by converting it into a peacekeeping force, which has faced opposition in the UN Security Council.
A spokesman for the Kenya-led mission told Reuters after the shooting began that its personnel were not invited to the conference, and it had sent in reinforcements.
According to a recent United Nations report, only 24% of health facilities in the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area are currently operating.
