In a statement issued Oct. 23, Haiti’s association of private hospitals warned that unless fuel supplies could be guaranteed to hospitals today, at least 40 hospitals will be forced to close by tomorrow, Oct. 26. At the same time, the nation’s public transportation workers and affiliated unions are on a nationwide strike today to protest fuel shortages and the security situation on the roads, in which armed gangs hijack trucks carrying gasoline and diesel fuel and demand ransom payments before they release the fuel or sell it on the black market, causing shortages and dramatic price increases. Truck drivers are demanding immediate government action to address this emergency situation, the Haitian Times reports.
According to the Miami Herald today, the situation facing hospitals is dire, as the fuel shortages are affecting hospitals’ ability to care for patients. Over the weekend, hospitals began turning patients away and releasing some who were less ill, because they lack fuel to power generators that provide electricity. In its statement, the association of private hospitals, which includes all non-state, private and charitable hospitals in the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area, said it was “sounding the alarm” to the government generally, and to the Ministry of Public Health and Population in particular, that unless an emergency humanitarian corridor were established on the roads to allow fuel to be transported safely to hospitals, they will have no choice but to close their doors. Pierre Honnorat, the interim UN humanitarian coordinator in Haiti stated in his remarks, “lives are likely to be lost in Haiti if fuel deliveries don’t reach the hospitals immediately.” Gang control of roads also prevents emergency aid from reaching those parts of the country struck by the Aug. 14 earthquake.
