Haiti’s Health Minister Replaced After Deadly Gang Attack at Hospital

Haiti’s health minister has been removed from his post following a deadly gang attack on the largest public hospital in the capital, Port-au-Prince. In a statement published on Thursday afternoon, Haiti’s transitional council named Justice Minister Patrick Pelissier as interim Health Minister until a replacement is found for the outgoing minister, Duckenson Lorthe. Two journalists and a police officer were killed Tuesday as gang members burst into the General Hospital and fired indiscriminately at reporters who were there to cover the facility’s reopening. It was one of the worst attacks on Haitian media in recent memory. Seven other journalists were wounded. Jean Feguens Regala, a photographer who survived the attack, said journalists had been invited to the hospital by the health ministry but there was little security at the site. “The fact that the minister of health invited us, you feel that preparations have been made already,” Regala told The Associated Press. “When we made contact with a police unit, the police told us they were not aware of the event.” The health minister did not show up at the event, for reasons that have not been explained. Shortly after the attack, Johnson Izo André — considered Haiti’s most powerful...