At least two journalists were among those killed and seven others injured when suspected gang members opened fire in a Christmas Eve shooting at the General Hospital in the downtown area of Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, according to news reports and two Haitian journalists who witnessed the attack.
The journalists were attacked around 11 a.m. Tuesday as they waited for Health Minister Duckenson Lorthe Blema to reopen a wing of the hospital, which was closed following a gang attack earlier this year.
“The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is appalled by this tragic attack on reporters doing their jobs,” a CPJ spokesperson said in New York on Tuesday. “We send deepest condolences to the families of those killed and call on Haitian authorities to swiftly bring these killers to justice.”
A local gang leader, Johnson ‘Izo’ André, claimed responsibility for the attack in a video posted on WhatsApp, saying the Viv Ansanm gang coalition had not authorized the reopening.
The journalists’ bodies were later shown on social media and identified by colleagues as Jimmy Jean, a reporter with online outlet Moun Afe Bon, and Marckendy Natoux, who worked for Voice of America in Haiti.
Witnesses said a police officer was also killed in the gunfire.
“They shot at us. Some went down. They were hit by the bullets,” Jephte Bazil, one of the journalists who saw the attack, told CPJ by phone outside another nearby hospital where the injured were taken.
“Some of us were at the entrance and others were inside with the staff,” said Bazil, a reporter for an online media outlet, Machann Zen Haïti.
According to the United Nations, more than 5,350 people have been killed in gang-related violence in 2024 and another 2,155 injured.
The Haitian government issued a statement on Tuesday saying “this heinous act constitutes an unacceptable assault on the very foundations of our society” and pledging its “unfailing commitment to restoring order and bringing the perpetrators of this crime to justice.”
