Haiti’s Prime Minister visits medical facility devastated by gangs

A day after Haitian police triumphantly announced they had regained control of the country’s largest public hospital after a four-month siege by powerful gangs, the country’s prime minister condemned the destruction.

“A hospital is not a war zone,” Prime Minister Garry Conille said on Tuesday as he toured the destroyed site of the green-and-white facility not far from the presidential palace and the French embassy in Port-au-Prince. “Even under the worst circumstances, hospitals are protected.”

Conille, a gynecologist by training, walked under heavy guard through the gang-infested grounds of Haiti’s State University Hospital. As he and Haitian police chief Rameau Normil inspected the building, Conille could not hide his shock as he pointed to the bullet holes in the walls and overturned furniture on the floor.

All of these were harsh reminders of the constant firefights that have rocked Port-au-Prince since February 29, closing off access to both the hospital and the adjacent 534-bed replacement hospital still under construction.

“We will reclaim our spaces,” said Conille, reiterating his support for the Haitian police but also promising to give the beleaguered force “everything it needs.”

On Monday, Normil announced a rare success: Police, he said, had recaptured the General Hospital, as it is popularly known, from the gangs after launching a successful operation the previous evening. He made the announcement while standing next to the commander of the Kenyan-led Multinational Security Support Mission, Godfrey Otunge, at their first joint press conference.

The General Hospital is among dozens of medical facilities that ceased operations or were burned down after armed gangs joined forces on February 29 and launched deadly attacks in an attempt to overthrow the previous government.

The hospital, located opposite the presidential palace, a major target of the gangs, was soon forced to close its doors and evacuate its patients. Meanwhile, the area surrounding the hospital and the new replacement building had become a no-go zone.

Conille recalls his early days in Haiti, before becoming a development expert at the United Nations. He says the general hospital used to receive about 1,500 patients a day. Today, that number is zero.

Haiti’s largest public hospital was badly damaged in the 2010 earthquake and was already struggling before the armed attacks. Nevertheless, staff and patients had long pinned their hopes on the new facility that the U.S. and French governments have been trying to build since 2010.

The French Agency for Development has provided nearly $44 million and the US Agency for International Development has provided $35 million, of which $10 million was paid out just two years ago for construction costs. Haiti has now paid out $23 million of the announced $27 million. Despite the high investment, the fate of the facility is uncertain.

Among those accompanying Conille on Tuesday’s visit was Louis Gérald Gilles, one of the members of the newly appointed Presidential Council. The French ambassador to Haiti, Fabrice Mauriès, also hopes to visit the facility. Even before Conille and Gilles’ visit, the French embassy had requested a visit from Mauriès and a representative from USAID to see what was needed to get the new facility up and running.

“We believe that the next sensible step is to send a mission of experts to the site to assess the situation and the conditions for the resumption of work of the new General Hospital of Haiti,” a spokesman for the French development agency told the Miami Herald.