Haitian soldiers guard a checkpoint after armed gang members exchanged gunfire with police and soldiers around the airport in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on March 6, 2024. (AFP)

Two journalists and a police officer were killed, and several others injured, on Tuesday when armed men opened fire on a group of journalists attending a government press conference to mark the reopening of Haiti’s largest public hospital, The Guardian reported.

The State University of Haiti hospital, located in Port-au-Prince, had been closed earlier this year due to street gang activity. Authorities had planned its reopening for Christmas Eve. However, as journalists gathered to report on the event, gunmen attacked the crowd.

Johnson “Izo” André, regarded as Haiti’s most powerful gang leader and a member of the Viv Ansanm gang coalition, claimed responsibility for the attack in a video posted on social media. In the video, André stated that the gang coalition had not authorized the hospital’s reopening.

Footage shared online showed journalists inside the building, with at least three appearing wounded and lying on the floor, though the video has not been independently verified.

Robert Dimanche, spokesperson for the Online Media Collective, identified the slain journalists as Markenzy Nathoux and Jimmy Jean. The Haitian Association of Journalists condemned the attack, describing it as “a macabre scene comparable to terrorism, pure and simple.”

Haiti’s interim president, Leslie Voltaire, expressed condolences to those affected by the attack on Tuesday. “I send my sympathies to the people who were victims, the national police, and the journalists,” Voltaire said in a national address.

In a later statement, the government vowed to take strong action, calling the incident “a heinous act, which targets an institution dedicated to health and life, [and] constitutes an unacceptable attack on the very foundations of our society.”

Journalists had been invited to the press conference at the State University of Haiti hospital, also known as the general hospital, in downtown Port-au-Prince. They arrived starting at 8 a.m. (13:00 GMT) to cover the event with Haiti’s new health minister, but the minister had not yet arrived when gunfire erupted around 11 a.m.

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The health minister, Duckenson Lorthe Blema, was appointed in late November during a cabinet reshuffle following the ousting of former prime minister Garry Conille, who served just six months in office. The hospital, the largest public medical facility in the country, has been closed since March after a wave of gang violence led to the removal of former prime minister Ariel Henry.

Gang violence has severely strained Haiti’s healthcare system, with armed groups looting, setting fire to, and destroying medical facilities and pharmacies in the capital. This has caused a surge in patients and a shortage of resources.

The situation is further complicated by the rainy season, which increases the risk of waterborne diseases. Poor conditions in camps and informal settlements have heightened the threat of cholera, with over 84,000 suspected cases reported nationwide, according to UNICEF.