No other hospitals were operating in the areas where fighting was taking place.
En el corazón de Cité Soleil, uno de los barrios más castigados de Puerto Príncipe, Médicos Sin Fronteras se vio obligada a evacuar su hospital el lunes tras más de un día de combates ininterrumpidos entre grupos armados rivales. En apenas doce horas, el personal médico atendió a más de cuarenta heridos de bala antes de que la propia instalación se convirtiera en zona de peligro. La evacuación no es un hecho aislado, sino el reflejo de un colapso más profundo: entre enero y marzo de 2026, más de mil seiscientas personas han muerto por violencia en Haití, y son las propias fuerzas de seguridad del Estado las responsables de la mayoría de esas muertes. Cuando quienes deben proteger también amenazan, y quienes curan deben huir, una sociedad entera queda a la intemperie.
- Los enfrentamientos entre bandas rivales en Cité Soleil y Croix des Bouquets el 10 de mayo alcanzaron tal intensidad que el hospital de MSF quedó atrapado en el centro del fuego cruzado.
- En solo doce horas, los equipos médicos trataron a más de cuarenta personas con heridas de bala, un guardia de seguridad fue alcanzado dentro del propio recinto y más de ochocientos desplazados buscaban refugio en las instalaciones.
- La situación se volvió insostenible cuando comenzaron a llegar pacientes trasladados desde el Hospital Fontaine, también sitiado por la violencia; varias mujeres embarazadas dieron a luz durante la propia evacuación.
- MSF suspendió operaciones indefinidamente, dejando sin cobertura médica a toda una población en el momento de mayor necesidad, sin que ningún otro hospital operara en la zona de conflicto activo.
- La Policía Nacional desplegó unidades especializadas y vehículos blindados en los barrios afectados, pero la respuesta llegó tarde y en un contexto donde las fuerzas del Estado son responsables del 69% de las más de 1.600 muertes registradas entre enero y marzo de 2026.
El lunes, Médicos Sin Fronteras tomó la decisión de evacuar a su personal y pacientes del hospital que gestiona en Cité Soleil, en Puerto Príncipe. Más de un día de combates entre grupos armados rivales había convertido el entorno del centro médico en un campo de batalla. La organización anunció la suspensión indefinida de sus operaciones por condiciones de seguridad imposibles.
La violencia estalló la mañana del 10 de mayo con una intensidad extrema en Cité Soleil y el municipio vecino de Croix des Bouquets. El hospital, situado en el epicentro del conflicto, atendió a más de cuarenta heridos de bala en apenas doce horas. Un guardia de seguridad fue alcanzado por una bala perdida dentro del perímetro del centro, que también albergaba a más de ochocientas personas huidas de sus hogares.
Durante la noche del 10 al 11 de mayo, la situación empeoró. El personal de MSF comenzó a recibir pacientes trasladados desde el Hospital Fontaine, igualmente amenazado. Entre ellos había mujeres embarazadas: varias dieron a luz en plena evacuación. Davina Hayles, directora de proyectos de MSF en Haití, describió la posición imposible de sus equipos: no podían garantizar la atención ni la seguridad de su propio personal bajo el fuego.
La consecuencia más grave fue el vacío que dejó el cierre: ningún otro hospital operaba en la zona de conflicto activo, dejando a toda una población sin acceso médico en el momento de mayor necesidad. MSF calificó la suspensión de temporal, pero sin ofrecer ningún plazo para la reapertura.
Este episodio se inscribe en una crisis de proporciones catastróficas. Entre enero y marzo de 2026, más de mil seiscientas personas murieron por violencia en Haití. Según cifras de Naciones Unidas, el 69% de esas muertes son atribuibles a las fuerzas de seguridad del Estado, el 27% a las bandas y el 4% restante a grupos de autodefensa. Entre las víctimas hay niños. La evacuación del hospital no es un incidente aislado: es una consecuencia más del colapso sostenido de un país donde grupos armados controlan vastas porciones del territorio.
Médicos Sin Fronteras made the decision Monday to pull its medical staff and patients out of its hospital in Cité Soleil, a neighborhood in Port-au-Prince, Haiti's capital. The evacuation came after more than a day of intense fighting between rival armed groups had turned the hospital grounds themselves into a war zone. The organization announced it was suspending operations indefinitely, citing security conditions that had become impossible to work within.
The violence erupted on the morning of May 10, with extreme intensity clashes breaking out between gangs in Cité Soleil and the neighboring municipality of Croix des Bouquets. From that point forward, gunfire did not stop. The hospital, positioned in the center of the fighting, became a target zone. In the span of just twelve hours, MSF's medical teams treated more than forty people with bullet wounds. One of the hospital's own security guards was struck by a stray bullet while inside the facility's perimeter. Beyond the wounded, the hospital had also sheltered more than eight hundred people who had fled their homes seeking safety.
The situation grew more dire as the violence continued through the night of May 10 into May 11. MSF staff found themselves receiving patients transferred from another facility, Fontaine Hospital, which had also become unsafe. Among those patients were pregnant women. Several gave birth during the evacuation itself, bringing new life into the chaos. Davina Hayles, MSF's projects director in Haiti, described the impossible position her teams faced: they could not provide care in the middle of gunfire, and they could not guarantee the safety of their own personnel.
What made the evacuation particularly consequential was the fact that no other hospitals were operating in the areas where the fighting was taking place. The closure of MSF's facility left an entire population without medical access at a moment when violence was generating casualties at a rapid pace. The organization stressed that this suspension was temporary, but offered no timeline for when conditions might improve enough to reopen.
In response to the clashes, Haiti's National Police announced the deployment of specialized units and nine armored vehicles to the Cul-de-Sac plain near Port-au-Prince, specifically to the neighborhoods of Cazeau, Carrefour Droullard, and Terre Noire. The deployments came after the fighting between rival gangs on the night of May 10 to 11 had already claimed lives, with some deaths attributed to stray bullets, and forced residents to abandon their homes.
The violence in Haiti has reached catastrophic proportions. Between January and March of 2026 alone, more than sixteen hundred people died in violent incidents. The breakdown of responsibility, according to United Nations figures, reveals a troubling pattern: security forces account for sixty-nine percent of those deaths, gangs for twenty-seven percent, and self-defense groups for the remaining four percent. The UN's accounting includes dozens of civilians killed by security forces, among them children. This context frames the hospital evacuation not as an isolated incident but as one consequence of a broader collapse of safety and order that has been grinding on for years, with armed groups maintaining control over large portions of the country.
Citações Notáveis
We find ourselves forced to evacuate our hospital and suspend operations until further notice due to the extreme level of insecurity.— Médicos Sin Fronteras statement
In just 12 hours, our teams treated more than 40 people with bullet wounds.— Davina Hayles, MSF projects director in Haiti
A Conversa do Hearth Outra perspectiva sobre a história
Why did MSF decide to evacuate rather than stay and continue treating patients?
Because staying meant their staff couldn't be protected. When bullets are coming through the hospital walls and your own security guard gets shot, you're not running a medical facility anymore—you're running a shelter in a combat zone. At some point, you have to choose between being present and being alive.
But they had eight hundred people sheltering there. What happens to those people now?
That's the unbearable part. They had to leave. Some of those eight hundred probably went back into the streets where the fighting was happening. The hospital was at least a roof. Now there's nothing.
The UN data shows security forces killed far more people than gangs did. How does that change what we're looking at here?
It means the violence isn't just a gang problem that police are trying to solve. It means the institutions meant to protect people are themselves a major source of the killing. When you're a doctor trying to treat gunshot wounds, you're treating wounds from both sides—and you can't tell the difference once the bullet is inside someone.
Is there any sense of when the hospital might reopen?
MSF called it temporary, but they didn't give a date. That's honest language for "we don't know." The fighting could stop tomorrow or it could continue for months. Until it does stop, and until someone can guarantee that the hospital won't be in the middle of it, the doors stay closed.
What about the pregnant women who gave birth during the evacuation?
They delivered in chaos, without proper facilities, while their country was tearing itself apart around them. Those births happened anyway—life doesn't wait for peace. But those mothers and babies are now in a place with no hospital access. That's the human cost that doesn't fit neatly into casualty counts.