Aid Workers Leave Southern Somalia

by Jordan Yerman | April 3, 2008 at 06:15 am

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Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF, also known as Doctors Without Borders) have removed their 17-year presence from Kisimayo, Somalia after the murder of three of their staff earlier this year. MSF continues to operate in other regions of the beleagured country.

This is precisely what Somalia does not need, as it is unable to meet its medical and health needs without assistance: MSF has assisted more than half a million patients since it began work in Somalia.

The aid organisation Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) has shut down its operations in southern Somalia citing increased insecurity.

MSF's Arjan Hehenkamp said staff in Kismayo cannot continue working where they are deliberately targeted.

The move comes only days after gunmen kidnapped two UN foreign workers.

"This has been an extremely difficult decision to make," said Arjan Hehenkamp, MSF's Director of Operations for Somalia. "There is a significant need for independent humanitarian assistance in Kismayo, but we cannot continue working in a place where our staff have been deliberately targeted and brutally murdered."

More details of the incident in question can be found here:

A Briton and a Kenyan initially identified as UN aid workers were abducted by armed men on Tuesday in southern Somalia in the latest in a string of attacks targeting humanitarian operations.