Haiti: MSF forced to evacuate hospital in Cité Soleil, temporarily suspend activities
For more than 24 hours, the Cité Soleil neighbourhood in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, has been the scene of heavy clashes between armed groups. At the Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) hospital, located in Cité Soleil, medical teams have had to cope with an influx of patients with gunshot wounds and take in more than 800 people seeking safety. As the situation continues to deteriorate, MSF has been forced to evacuate our hospital and suspend operations there until further notice.
On the morning of Sun., May 10, 2026, extremely intense fighting broke out between several rival armed groups in the neighbourhoods of Cité Soleil and Croix des Bouquets. Since then, the gunfire has not stopped and the MSF hospital in Cité Soleil finds itself in the midst of the clashes.
“In just 12 hours, our teams treated more than 40 people with gunshot wounds,” says Davina Hayles, MSF country director in Haiti. “One of our security guards was also struck by a stray bullet right inside our hospital compound. We managed to evacuate him and he is now in stable condition, but it is unthinkable that our teams and civilians should become victims of these clashes. In addition, several hundred inhabitants of Cité Soleil, as well as our colleagues and their families, have sought refuge in our hospital, having no other option to shelter from the gunfire.”
“Our goal is to protect our patients and our staff. It is impossible for us to provide care in the midst of gunfire. A hospital where staff are not safe cannot function.”
Davina Hayles, MSF country director
MSF teams also treated patients transferred from the Fontaine hospital, including pregnant women who gave birth overnight from Sunday to Monday. Currently, not a single hospital is open in the area where the fighting is taking place.
Faced with this situation of unprecedented violence, MSF was forced to evacuate our hospital and temporarily suspend our medical activities in Cité Soleil. “Our goal is to protect our patients and our staff,” says Hayles. “It is impossible for us to provide care in the midst of gunfire. A hospital where staff are not safe cannot function. For now, this suspension is temporary, due to the extreme level of insecurity. We know that medical needs are exponential in Cité Soleil and more broadly in Port-au-Prince.”
MSF calls on all parties to the conflict to ensure the safety of healthcare workers and civilians.
MSF has been working in Haiti for 35 years. Last year, our teams provided 129,458 medical consultations, including 12,984 for children under the age of five and assisted with 2,812 deliveries. They performed 8,469 surgical procedures, provided care for 4,975 survivors of sexual violence, treated 3,419 people for violence-related injuries and conducted 19,819 physical therapy sessions.
