Haiti: Gang violence prompts hospital evacuation

Fontaine Hospital Center is a community clinic in the impoverished Port-au-Prince shantytown of Cite Soleil (file image)

A hospital in the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince, has been evacuated by police after nearby gang violence.

More than 100 patients - nearly half of them children - had to be removed from the Fontaine Hospital Center, according to its director Jose Ulysse.

The hospital is in the large shantytown of Cite Soleil, where there have been reports of unrest in recent days following the death of a gang leader.

Haiti is currently in the grip of unprecedented levels of lawlessness.

"There was a gang war, but the war is around the hospital," Mr Ulysse told AFP news agency, clarifying an earlier report that gangs had entered the hospital and taken people hostage.

He said houses around the hospital had been set on fire and that while some people had been able to flee the facility on their own, others - including a woman who had given birth by Caesarean section a day earlier - needed the help of the local authorities.

"We were able to get everyone to safety," Mr Ulysse added.

A source in Port-au-Prince told the BBC's Mexico, Central America and Cuba Correspondent, Will Grant, that the situation at the hospital had "escalated very quickly".

It came a day after powerful gang leader Iskar Andrice was killed in Cite Soleil - raising fears that there could be a further spike in violence in the area.

Gangs have taken increasing control of Port-au-Prince since the assassination of the country's president in 2021 threw Haiti into a political crisis.

Thousands of Haitians have fled their homes in the capital, while more than 2,400 others have been killed, according to the latest figures from the UN.

Kenya has said it will send 1,000 police officers to Haiti to help restore order - a move that has been backed by the UN.