Three shot dead as gunmen attack Haiti hospital

By Leonardo Rocha, BBC Americas Regional Editor, Jaroslav Lukiv, BBC News, Dec.25:  At least three people have been killed when armed men in Haiti opened fire at journalists, police and medical staff during a briefing to announce the reopening of the country's biggest public hospital.

Many others injured were injured in Tuesday's attack in the General Hospital in the capital Port-au-Prince.

Pictures posted online appear to show several people injured or dead inside the building.

The site had been recaptured by Haiti's government in July, after being occupied and destroyed by violent gangs that control much of the city.

Journalists were waiting for the arrival of Health Minister Lorthe Blema when the shooting began.

Reports say two journalists and a police officer were shot dead.

"It felt like a terrible movie," Dieugo André, a photojournalist who witnessed the violence, was quoted as saying by The Haitian Times.

"I have the blood of several injured journalists on my clothes."

The attack is reported to have been carried out by members of the Viv Ansanm gang.

In a video statement, the head of Haiti's presidential transitional council, Leslie Voltaire, said: "We express our sympathy to all the victims' families, in particularly to the Haiti National Police and all the journalists' associations.

"We guarantee them that this act will not remain without consequences."

The people of Haiti continue to suffer with unbearable levels of gang violence, despite the installation of a new transition government in April and the deployment of an international force led by Kenyan police officers six months ago.

Haiti has been engulfed in a wave of gang violence since the assassination in 2021 of the then-president, Jovenel Moïse.

An estimated 85% of Port-au-Prince is still under gang control.

The UN says that as many as 5,000 people have been killed in violence in Haiti this year alone, and the country is now on the verge of collapse.