Thousands of doctors, nurses and other health professionals across Haiti on Tuesday were on strike to protest a spike in gang-related kidnappings as supporters burned tires and blocked roads.
The three-day strike that began on Monday shut down public and private health institutions in the capital, Port-au-Prince, and beyond, with only emergency rooms accepting patients.
“We are living a catastrophic situation where no one is protected,” said Louis Gerald Gilles, a doctor who closed his private practice in the neighborhood of Delmas on Tuesday to protest the recent kidnappings of two doctors.
“No professional is protected. Today it could be a doctor, tomorrow they could enter the office of a lawyer or an architect,” he said.
Kidnappings in Haiti increased 180 percent in the past year, with 655 of them reported to police, said a report by the UN Security Council released in the middle of last month.
Authorities believe that the number is much higher as many kidnappings go unreported.
“No social group was spared; among the victims were laborers, traders, religious leaders, professors, medical doctors, journalists, human rights defenders and foreign citizens,” the report said.
The most recent kidnappings of two doctors spooked the staff at Port-au-Prince’s General Hospital, where union workers gathered on Tuesday and said conditions had become increasingly dysfunctional since the July 7 killing of Haitian president Jovenel Moise.
They accused Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry’s administration of not releasing sorely needed funds to the Haitian Ministry of Health for basic services, adding that they were worried about the lack of security.
“They can walk in here, grab anyone and leave with no worry,” said Guerline Jean-Louis, a 44-year-old hospital janitor who joined the strike. “This is why we support the movement.”
Haitian Ministry of Health officials could not immediately be reached for comment.
Some patients, including Mario Fleurimon, a 39-year-old primary-school teacher, were unaware of the strike.
He strode into a medical complex that was empty except for a lone security guard. While frustrated he was unable to see a doctor for his diabetes, he said he supported the strike.
“There should be a general rising up to fight the insecurity,” he said.
In a recent statement, the Haitian Medical Association demanded that the government push to have the doctors released without conditions and implement measures to “stop the wave of insecurity that strips us of our fundamental freedom to go freely about our lives.”
One of the doctors was released on Tuesday, although the conditions of his release were not immediately known.
The prime minister has pledged to crack down on the spike in gang violence and kidnappings, with the US and other countries pledging resources and training to help an understaffed, underfunded police force.
The strike by health professionals was scheduled to end yesterday.
Another strike by the Association of Owners and Drivers in Haiti was expected to start today to protest theft of vehicles in the community of Martissant, ground zero for warring gangs who have kidnapped or killed several civilians, many of them aboard public buses.
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