Police say they have regained control of Haiti’s largest hospital

Haiti’s new Prime Minister Garry Conille and the head of Haiti’s police visited the country’s largest hospital on Tuesday, after authorities said they had regained control of the medical institution over the weekend.

Haitian police chief Normil Rameau said at a news conference Monday that police took control of the Haitian State University Hospital, known as the Port-au-Prince General Hospital, on Sunday night, following months of attacks by armed groups.

Haitians “will wake up one morning and find that the operation has been carried out and that the criminals have been arrested and neutralized,” Rameau said at the press conference, but he did not accept questions from the media.

He was accompanied by Kenyan officer Godfrey Otunge, who stated that the Kenyan police contingentsupported by the UN, intends to work closely with the Haitian authorities, as well as with local and international partners dedicated to the reconstruction of Haiti.

Attacks by criminal groups have brought Haiti’s health system to the brink of collapse, and escalating violence has led to a surge in seriously ill patients and a shortage of resources to treat them.

Gangs have been looting, burning and destroying medical institutions and pharmacies in the capital, where they control up to 80% of the area.

In addition to the hospital, gangs have seized police stations, attacked the main international airport, which has been closed for nearly three months, and stormed Haiti’s two largest prisons.

According to a report by the International Organization for Migration, violence in Haiti has displaced nearly 580,000 people since March.

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