By Deutsche Welle
Dec 24, 2024, 8:22 PM EST
Two journalists died this Tuesday in an armed gang attack while covering the reopening of a hospital in the center of Port-au-Prince, the Haitian capital, a media group told AFP.
“Markenzy Nathoux and Jimmy Jean were murdered this Tuesday, December 24, during the attack by bandits from the ‘Viv ansanm’ (Living Together) coalition during the reopening of the HUEH hospital (Haiti State University Hospital),” Robest Dimanche, spokesperson for the Online Media Collective (CMEL), told AFP.
Other journalists were injured and were treated at another public hospital in Port-au-Prince.
According to preliminary information, gang members opened fire during the reopening of the hospital, in an area of high insecurity where gangs impose the law.
Hospital had been attacked
The HUEH was closed since February 29, after being attacked by members of the “Viv ansanm” coalition, that last week he had also set fire to the Bernard Mevs hospital, without causing any casualties.
Haiti, an impoverished Caribbean country, faces endemic armed gang violence and political instability.
This Tuesday’s attack occurs amid growing insecurity in Port-au-Prince, where at the beginning of the month at least 207 people died due to abuses ordered by a powerful leader against practitioners of the voodoo cult, according to the UN.
The arrival this summer of a multinational mission to support the Haitian police, led by Kenya and supported by the UN and the United States, has not reduced the crimes of armed groups, such as numerous murders, rapes, looting and kidnappings.
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