Haiti: Caught In Crossfire

(Jose Ulysse, Director, Fontaine Hospital)

I had a meeting (scheduled) with some of the hospital team at 11:30am – 1pm, to do end of the year evaluations, when I got the first notification that said:

(WhatsApp text message exchange)

-Director, things are difficult
-What’s happening?
-They’ve started shooting

TEXT: On November 13, 2023, clashes breaks out between two violent criminal groups  - G-Pep and G9 - in Cité Soleil, Haiti.

TEXT: By November 15, the clashes spread and bullets are fired at the Fontaine Hospital, which is the one of only two still open in Cité Soleil.

TEXT: Patients and staff flee. Except several women, newborn babies, and 16 children at a day care center inside the hospital, who are unable to escape.

(Jose Ulysse, Director, Fontaine Hospital)

Initially, I called Radio Metropole.

Radio Metropole was airing the news, and they stopped the news to put out an SOS saying there’s a hospital in danger in Cite Soleil, the Fontaine Hospital.

When they aired it, other radio stations heard and picked it up.

At the same time, my daughter was on social media letting more people know.

(Kareen Ulysse, Executive Director, Fontaine Hospital Foundation)

I was in the north of Haiti trying to relax, and that backfired.

So, I make a post online to Digicel [cell phone company].

I’m like, “Hey, this is what's happening. We need minutes [phone credit]. This is not the time for our staff to lose minutes. Please, can you donate minutes?””

And ten minutes later Digicel are like, “What do you need?”

I sent them the numbers of all our employees.

Minutes, minutes, minutes, minutes, minutes, and it was right when they activated minutes for our driver, ____ , ____ said, “OK, I’m here. Can you send a blindé [armored vehicle]?”

(Nanny, Fontaine Hospital)

The space we were in was upstairs.

We were quite exposed.

We needed to cross a small foot bridge to get to another space.

While gunshots were being exchanged, it didn’t seem like a good idea.

We contacted our superiors on the group chat.

(Kareen Ulysse)

I was like, this is really, really bad. So, I'm calling my dad, and I was like, “What do we do?” I called Hero Rescue, Hero Client Rescue.

(Jose Ulysse, Director, Fontaine Hospital)

Hero Rescue is a national ambulatory service that can help in these crazy situations. Hero Rescue agreed to come with the police armored vehicles to help us evacuate those who could not run.

(Nanny)

A woman was in labor. The doctor was supposed to operate on her because the baby was stuck. She was supposed to have a cesarean. The pain was too much for her, she was crying. The kids were making a lot of noise.

(Kareen Ulysse)

My driver. He risked it all. He was the one I was calling and texting.

I said, “you have to announce yourself. Even if you send somebody else, everyone's scared. But everyone knows_____.

“So, you have to go room by room and say it’s ____ with the police.” So, he went room by room.

(Nanny)

I saw it was the police and they said, “It’s you we are here for. Where are the kids? Let’s go, lets evacuate.” I remember they covered us; the police covered us. They made us get a bit lower to go down the stairs.

(Jose Ulysse)

When they took this group away and I was doing an evaluation with them. “Is so-and-so there?” “That baby - did you see it?” They said, “no”.  Did you look in that room?
They said, “no”. You wouldn’t see a baby if the baby is lying down, or is in an incubator, or is isolated. You need to go inside to see if they are in the cribs.

The armored vehicles agreed to go back. Hero Rescue agreed to go back. It was then that they came across the infants in the neonatal unit that were lying down.

(Kareen Ulysse)

I'm calling everyone I know in Cité Soleil. I'm like, “Please if you know so and so from such and such group? Please just tell them we’ve got kids in there.”

TEXT: Meanwhile, gunmen and other opportunists ransacked cables, food, generators, inverters, medical supplies, and solar panels.

TEXT: The woman who needed the cesarean didn't get help in time. Her baby died.

TEXT: If the Fontaine Hospital is forced to close because of ongoing violence, thousands of people will not have access to healthcare, which is a fundamental human right. 

TEXT: All but one of the patients and staff were evacuated safely from Fontaine Hospital.

(Jose Ulysse)

You cannot isolate the problem of healthcare because the problem of providing healthcare goes hand-in-hand with the socioeconomic and sociopolitical environment.

To provide healthcare in this area, you need people to agree to go into the area to provide that care. If everyone is too afraid – what will happen?

TEXT: In 2023, over 4,700 people were killed, and nearly 2,700 kidnapped by violent criminal groups in Haiti.

TEXT: The UN has authorized an international mission led by Kenya to tackle the violence in Haiti, but they are yet to deploy.

(Kareen Ulysse)

In terms of the rumoured international troops that are supposed to come, the number one thing that needs to happen is that they actually need to come. Because every time they give a deadline, and it doesn't happen, you're giving these men time to strategize. You're giving them time to recruit. You're giving them time to dig more trenches. You're giving whoever supporting them time to smuggle more guns and more ammo.

TEXT: UN member states should urgently implement a rights-based response to the crisis in Haiti.