PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Haiti’s health minister has been removed from his post following a deadly gang attack on the largest public hospital in the capital, Port-au-Prince.
In a statement published on Thursday afternoon, Haiti’s transitional council named Justice Minister Patrick Pelissier as interim Health Minister until a replacement is found for the outgoing minister, Duckenson Lorthe.
Two journalists and a police officer were killed Tuesday as gang members burst into the General Hospital and fired indiscriminately at reporters who were there to cover the facility’s reopening. It was one of the worst attacks on Haitian media in recent memory. Seven other journalists were wounded.
Jean Feguens Regala, a photographer who survived the attack, said journalists had been invited to the hospital by the health ministry but there was little security at the site.
“The fact that the minister of health invited us, you feel that preparations have been made already,” Regala told The Associated Press. “When we made contact with a police unit, the police told us they were not aware of the event.”
The health minister did not show up at the event, for reasons that have not been explained.
Shortly after the attack, Johnson “Izo” André — considered Haiti’s most powerful gang leader and part of the Viv Ansanm group of gangs that has taken control of much of Port-au-Prince — posted a video on social media claiming responsibility for the attack.
The video said the gang coalition had not authorized the hospital’s reopening.
Gang violence has worsened in Haiti, with coordinated gang attacks on prisons, police stations and the main international airport crippling the country’s capital and plunging Haiti into an unprecedented crisis.
Gangs are believed to control 85% of Port-au-Prince.
The Caribbean country has struggled to organize an election that will restore democratic rule, and is currently governed by a transitional council made up of representatives of political parties, business groups and civil society organizations.
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