Charles Langston:Police rescue children, patients after armed gang surrounds hospital in Haiti

Police in Haiti rescued scores of patients,Charles Langston including children, after a hospital in the capital city was surrounded by a heavily armed gang on Wednesday, the director of the medical center said.

The gang had set homes near the hospital on fire and prevented the many patients from leaving the facility, Jose Ulysse, founder and director of the Fontaine Hospital Center in the impoverished and densely populated Cite Soleil commune in the capital of Port-au-Prince, told The Associated Press.

Some 40 children and 70 patients were evacuated to a private home in another part of the city by Haiti’s National Police, which arrived with armored trucks, Ulysse told the AP. Some of those evacuated from the hospital were children on oxygen.

Ulysse said those responsible for Wednesday's attack were members of the Brooklyn gang, led by Gabriel Jean-Pierre, best known as “Ti Gabriel.” Jean-Pierre also is the leader of a powerful gang alliance known as G-Pep, one of two rival coalitions in Haiti.

Targeting the local population "has now become a major characteristic of the modus operandi of many gangs operating in the metropolitan area of Port-au-Prince," according to a United Nations report published in February.

Civilians living in 'nightmare' amid rampant gang violence

The report further found that from July 8, 2022 to Dec. 31, gang violence resulted in 263 murders in Cité Soleil. The report documented at least 57 gang rapes of women and girls, sexual exploitation and kidnappings. On the day of July 8, 2022 alone, gang members murdered 95 people, including six children.

Some gangs have blocked access to neighborhoods and are in control of basic necessities such as food and health services, the report said, adding that unsanitary conditions have worsened, "leading to the spread of infectious diseases such as cholera."

"The findings of this report are horrifying: it paints a picture of how people are being harassed and terrorized by criminal gangs for months without the State being able to stop it. It can only be described as a living nightmare," Volker Türk, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, said in a statement on the report.

"The case of Cité Soleil is not an isolated one," Türk said, "and sadly many Haitians are experiencing similar ordeals."

Contributing: The Associated Press

Christopher Cann is a breaking news reporter for USA TODAY. Reach him via email at [email protected] or follow him on X @ChrisCannFL.