The Bernard Mevs Hospital and the State University of Haiti (HUEH) announced the suspension of their services in protest at the kidnapping of pediatrician Bennety Augustin and doctor Jacques Pierre Pierre amid a surge in cases in the capital and other cities in the country. Country.
Augustin was kidnapped southeast of Port-au-Prince on May 5 and her captors did not release her despite a ransom payment. As a result, the Pediatric Society of Haiti called for a strike in health centers to put pressure on the government to restore the climate of safety.
For his part, Pierre, medical director of the HUEH, the country’s largest public body, has been detained since last Tuesday. Days earlier, another doctor was kidnapped while going to Espior Hospital.
Hundreds of people demonstrated Tuesday and Wednesday to denounce the phenomenon and called on the authorities to shoulder their responsibilities.
They criticized the fact that the wave of violence, killings and clashes between gangs has added to the kidnappings, which have so far claimed nearly two hundred lives, along with nine thousand internally displaced people.
“Armed violence in Haiti has reached an unimaginable and intolerable level,” United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michel Bachelet said on Tuesday, urging the international community to step up efforts to prevent the situation from becoming even more uncontrollable will.
According to the UN report, between April 24 and May 16, at least 92 people unrelated to the gangs lost their lives, 113 were injured, 12 disappeared and 49 were kidnapped.
The period coincides with the ongoing war between two powerful gangs in north-east Port-au-Prince, even blocking access to the capital, while tensions were mounting in Cité Soleil between two of the armed groups operating in the area.
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