Business Standard

MSF halts humanitarian programmes in Somalia

Image

IANS Nairobi

International medical charity Medicines Sans Frontieres Wednesday said it has closed its humanitarian activities in Somalia due to increased insecurity for its staff.

MSF international president Unni Karunakara said in Nairobi that the medical charity has informed the Somali government of the decision, Xinhua reported.

MSF has been providing humanitarian aid in the Horn of Africa nation for 22 years.

"We are ending our programmes in Somalia because the situation in the country has created an untenable imbalance between the risks and compromises our staff must make, and our ability to provide assistance to the Somali people," Karunakara said.

The charity will close its programmes in the capital Mogadishu, Afgooye and Daynille, Balad, Dinsor, Galkayo, Jilib, Jowhar, Kismayo, Marere, and Burao, where over 1,500 staff provided a range of services.

 

"In choosing to kill, attack, and abduct humanitarian aid workers, these armed groups, and the civilian authorities who tolerate their actions, have sealed the fate of countless lives in Somalia," he said.

During the MSF's 22-year history of working in Somalia, 16 staff members have been killed. The charity has experienced dozens of attacks on its staff, ambulances and medical facilities since 1991.

In 2012 alone, MSF provided more than 624,000 medical consultations, admitted 41,100 patients to hospitals, cared for 30,090 malnourished children, vaccinated 58,620 people, and delivered 7,300 babies.

The most recent incidents included the brutal killing of two MSF staff in Mogadishu in December 2011, and the abduction of two staff in the Dadaab refugee camps in Kenya that ended only last month after a 21-month captivity in Somalia.

Don't miss the most important news and views of the day. Get them on our Telegram channel

First Published: Aug 14 2013 | 9:48 PM IST

Explore News