PORT-AU-PRINCE (AP) – A heavily armed gang surrounded a hospital in Haiti on Wednesday, trapping women, children and newborns inside until police rescued them, according to the director of the medical centre, who pleaded for help via social media.
The Fontaine Hospital Centre in the capital of Port-au-Prince is considered an oasis and a lifeline in a community overrun by gangs that have unleashed increasingly violent attacks against each other and residents.
The hospital founder and director, Jose Ulysse, told The Associated Press that gangs were torching homes around the hospital and preventing people inside from leaving.
He initially said that it appeared some gang members had entered the hospital but later said they did not go inside.
Ulysse said members of Haiti’s National Police force responded to his call for help and arrived with three armoured trucks to evacuate 40 children and 70 patients to a private home in a safer part of the city. Among those delicately evacuated were children on oxygen, he said.
“Gangs are in total control of the area,” he said.
A spokesman for the National Police did not immediately return a message seeking comment.
Ulysse identified those responsible as members of the Brooklyn gang, led by Gabriel Jean-Pierre, best known as ‘Ti Gabriel’. Jean-Pierre also is the leader of a powerful gang alliance known as G-Pep, one of two rival coalitions in Haiti.
