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'It's really a disaster' The fight to save lives as gang war consumes capital
The Guardian Weekly
|December 20, 2024
Dr James Gana stepped out on to the balcony of his hospital overlooking a city under siege. "There's a sensation of 'What's next?'. Desperation is definitely present," the Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) medic said, as he stared down at one of scores of camps for displaced Haitians in their country's violence-plagued capital.
Gana, a Nigerian physician, arrived in Port-au-Prince in January. Within weeks, a coalition of criminal groups called Viv Ansanm launched a brutal insurrection, flooding Gana's emergency centre with shooting victims and forcing thousands to leave home.
"It's definitely a feeling of claustrophobia...as the safe zones continue to shrink," Gana said of the mood among patients, many uprooted as Viv Ansanm fighters turned vibrant communities into wastelands of burned housing and barricaded streets.
MSF (Doctors Without Borders) is a humanitarian organisation providing medical care in more than 70 countries. It is one of three charities we are raising money for through the 2024 Guardian and Observer appeal in support of civilians affected by war and conflict, alongside War Child and Parallel Histories.
This story is from the December 20, 2024 edition of The Guardian Weekly.
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