Aid group closes emergency clinic in Haiti amid violence

The clinic recently cared for dozens of gunshot victims, including multiple civilians, as gangs in Martissant battled over territory.

families displaced by gang violence live in a shelter created about a month prior inside a school in Petion Ville in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. (Photo | AP) 

PORT-AU-PRINCE: Gang violence that has left more than 19,000 people homeless in Haiti’s capital has now forced a Doctors Without Borders clinic to close, officials said Monday.

The emergency clinic in the Martissant neighborhood of Port-au-Prince had been operating for 15 years and served a community of some 300,000 people, the aid group said in a statement.

The clinic recently cared for dozens of gunshot victims, including multiple civilians, as gangs in Martissant battled over territory. Last year, it admitted more than 33,000 people into its emergency room.

Doctors Without Borders said it would try to relocate its clinic elsewhere in Port-au-Prince.

The announcement is a blow to a community largely lacking medical resources.