UNITED NATIONS (CMC) – The United Nations top expert on human rights in Haiti has condemned the “intentional” attacks on hospitals, clinics and healthcare workers by armed gangs in the French-speaking Caribbean Community (Caricom) country, warning Friday that medical facilities were already “near collapse”.

William O’Neill, who reports to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, highlighted an attack on the Bernard Mevs Hospital in Port-au-Prince on December 17 and the killing of several journalists and a police officer at the General Hospital on December 24, while they attending the official reopening of the hospital.

“Criminal gangs have murdered and kidnapped physicians, nurses and healthcare workers, including humanitarian workers,” O’Neill said in a statement, adding that gangs had “burned, ransacked and destroyed many hospitals and clinics, forcing many to close or suspend their operations”.

According to the rights expert, only 37 per cent of health facilities in Port-au-Prince are fully functional.

He said they remain difficult to access because of unchecked gangland violence in the capital that has put millions of Haitians at risk.

O’Neill said “repeated threats to attack health premises” and cited reports that police officers were also allegedly involved.

“The Haitian people, including hundreds of thousands of children living in very precarious conditions, are once again paying the high price of this violence with their right to health severely hindered,” he said, expressing concern over the spread of diseases such as cholera and tuberculosis.

O’Neill said the attacks on December 24 also underscore the dangers faced by journalists in Haiti, with many being killed or fleeing the country due to death threats.

The UN expert on human rights called on the international community to support Haitian authorities in combating insecurity and ensuring the right to health.

“I urge the international community to do everything it can to help Haitian authorities to combat rampant insecurity and ensure the realisation of the right to health, including unhindered access to health facilities, goods, and services,” he said, stressing the need also the Haitian authorities to investigate and bring those responsible for the attacks to justice.