Doctors Without Borders Closes Port-au-Prince Emergency Center Amid Escalating Gang Violence
Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has been forced to close its emergency medical center in the Turgeau neighborhood of Port-au-Prince,Haiti,after armed men opened fire on its vehicles in March 2025 while staff were evacuating. The closure further cripples an already devastated healthcare system struggling to cope with a surge in gang-related violence gripping the capital.
The decision comes as gang control over Haiti reaches alarming levels-approximately 90% of the capital is now controlled by gangs-and access to medical care plummets. More than 60% of Port-au-Prince’s health facilities,including Haiti’s general hospital,are currently non-operational due to the escalating violence. The MSF center, a critical lifeline for residents, treated over 100,000 patients since relocating to Turgeau from Martissant in 2021, where it originally opened in 2006.
“the building has already been hit several times by stray bullets due to its location close to the combat zones, which would make resuming activities too perilous for both patients and staff,” stated Jean-Marc Biquet, MSF head of mission in Haiti.
Prior to the March attack, the center’s staff treated over 300 patients between February 24 and March 2, and provided more than 2,500 medical consultations in February alone. The closure adds to a growing humanitarian crisis, with over 3,100 reported deaths and 1,100 injuries across Haiti from January to June, according to the United Nations.
The violence has also displaced a record 1.4 million people, a 36% increase since the end of 2024, with nearly two-thirds of new displacements occurring outside Port-au-Prince, notably in Haiti’s central region. Makeshift shelters have increased from 142 in December to 238 so far this year, according to the U.N. International Organization for migration.