Doctors Without Borders to Pull Out of Somalia

Mogadishu (KON) - One of the world’s most tenacious humanitarian groups said Wednesday that it could no longer endure the risks that come with operating in Somalia, in a move that underscored the continued violence in the country despite recent steps toward stability.
News Keydmedia Online

After suffering years of attacks on its staff members in Somalia, the international medical charity Doctors Without Borders said that it would shut down all operations in the country after 22 years of working there.

“The closure of our activities is a direct result of extreme attacks on our staff,” said the group’s international president, Unni Karunakara, “in an environment where armed groups and civilian leaders increasingly support, tolerate or condone the killing, assaulting and abducting of humanitarian aid workers.”

The move will strip many civilians of access to health care. Last year in Somalia, the group provided outpatient treatment to 624,200 people, admitted an additional 41,100 to hospitals and performed 2,750 surgeries.

An employee at the Daynile hospital in the capital, Mogadishu, said the group’s pullout would be “disastrous,” though he added that Doctors Without Borders had pledged to continue supporting the hospital for three months.

The news of the pullout adds to the growing number of setbacks that have undercut the Somali government’s narrative of a country on the upswing. A recent series of devastating attacks by the Shabab militant group, including a deadly assault on a United Nations compound, had already put those security gains into question.

The Somali government will discuss the departure of Doctors Without Borders in a cabinet meeting on Thursday, a spokesman said, but declined to comment otherwise.

Dr. Karunakara said his group’s 1,500 Somali staff members had already been informed of the decision. He said the group had no expatriate workers left in the country.

The group had endured dozens of attacks on staff members, vehicles and facilities over the years. Sixteen of its staff members have been killed in Somalia since 1991. Two Doctors Without Borders staff members were killed in Mogadishu in December 2011. Their killer was subsequently granted an early release, according to the group.

Keydmedia Online - Mogadishu Office | Agencies

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