A convent that was established in the Haitian capital by Mother Teresa herself has been raided and burned. The Missionaries of Charity opened the Bas Delmas compound in Port-au-Prince in 1979 to serve thousands from the most vulnerable communities each year, but now its absence will create more hardship in a nation wracked by civil unrest.
The Missionaries of Charity were raided in the dead of night on October 26, when assailants broke into the compound. A report from Zenit does not indicate that any of the religious sisters were harmed, but the perpetrators ransacked anything of value from them – as well as the adjoining medical dispensary – before setting the buildings on fire.
The loss of the Missionaries of Charity’s medical services will certainly be felt by the citizens of Haiti, as it tended to the medical needs of some 1,500 inpatients and 30,000 outpatients annually, at no charge. The community had played a vital role tending to the needs of the poorest and most vulnerable in Haiti for decades.
Much of the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince, is controlled by gangs. Zenit reported that the assailants who raided the convent were led by Jimmy Chérizier – also known as “Barbecue” – a former police officer who now runs the enormous criminal network that has been terrorizing Haiti.
The raid on the Missionaries of Charity was just the latest escalation of violence in a turbulent time for Haiti that began in 2020. According to Reuters, since then more than 700,000 people have been displaced and have devastated the nation’s food supply. It is estimated that some 5 million in Haiti are going hungry, while thousands more face famine conditions.
In recent months, the UN-backed Multinational Support Mission has pledged to increase its presence in Haiti and El Salvador’s military has joined the Mission to oversee medical evacuations. While humanitarian efforts are surging, there have yet to appear reports of the unrest nearing its end, leaving the attack on the Missionaries of Charity as a stark reminder of the risk faced by those who have remained in Haiti to help those in need.
