Haitian journalist Roberson Alphonse was shot and wounded early Tuesday in Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, as he passed through the Delmas neighborhood en route to host a radio show.
The popular Magik 9 radio host and Le Nouvelliste newspaper journalist is hospitalized after undergoing two operations, according to Magik 9 director and Le Nouvelliste editor-in-chief Frantz Duval. Duval tweeted that he had spoken with the journalist and that his condition is “stable.”
Shortly after the incident, Duval described on Twitter what he called an “assassination attempt.”
He thanked a “good Samaritan” who administered first aid at the scene and took measures to stop the bleeding before rescue workers arrived.
A photo of Alphonse’s car posted on Twitter shows bullet holes in the car on the driver’s side where Alphonse’s head and chest would have been at the time of the attack.
“I don’t have any doubt that this was well-planned, and that the shooter was waiting for Roberson,” said Guy Delva, secretary-general of SOS Journalists, a Haitian press freedom advocacy organization.
“I see it as a failed attempt, but the objective was to kill him. I don’t think it was a coincidence,” Delva told VOA.
Delva said Alphonse’s in-depth reports on the situation in Haiti might be why he was targeted.
“This is an attack against press freedom,” Delva told VOA.
Requests made to the Haitian National Police spokesperson for information were not answered.
Haitian Senate leader Joseph Lambert has called for an investigation.
In a tweet, Haiti’s Ministry of Communications said, “The @MCHaiti / @MCultureHT learned with horror the news of the assassination attempt perpetrated early Tuesday October 25, at Delmas 40B against a career journalist M. @ralphonse as he was on his way to work.”
In a press statement attached to the tweet, the ministry expressed its wishes for a speedy recovery, as well as its “complete solidarity” with the victim’s family and colleagues.
Haitian journalists have faced increased threats at a time when multiple crises are fueling an uptick in gang violence, an extreme gas shortage, near catastrophic food insecurity, and a worsening cholera epidemic.
The powerful G9 gang is currently holding the country’s oil supply hostage, blocking access to the country’s main oil terminal, Varreux, in Port-au-Prince.
Gang leader Jimmy Cherizier, also known as Barbecue, who is named in a United Nations resolution imposing sanctions on criminal actors responsible for the spiraling violence, has said his gang will continue blocking access to the oil terminal until Prime Minister Ariel Henry resigns.
