Wednesday, Aug 14, 2013
Dubai
The international medical humanitarian organisation Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), also known as ‘Doctors without Borders’, announced yesterday (Wednesday) the closure of all its programmes in Somalia due to the extreme attacks on its staff which resulted in the killing of two more aid workers this year.
Working in several parts of Somalia since 1991, the MSF said that the Somali government, armed groups and civilian leaders have failed to negotiate minimum guarantees to respect the medical humanitarian mission.
The total number of killed MSF aid workers in Somalia was confirmed at a press conference held in Dubai by the MSF Executive Director for the Middle East Ghada Hatim. “There have been a total of 16 aid workers killed in Somalia during the 22 years of the humanitarian mission, and many others have been subjected to assault, abuse, and abduction,” said Ghada.
She explained that the decision to pull out all humanitarian aid from Somalia was made after the organisation had experienced dozens of attacks on its staff, ambulances, and medical facilities, and was not able to negotiate any deal with armed groups and authorities on all sides.
In some cases, particularly but not exclusively in south central Somalia, the same parties with whom MSF was to negotiate minimum guarantees to respect its medical humanitarian mission have played a role in the abuses against MSF staff, either through direct involvement or unstated approval, added Ghada.
“MSF will be closing its medical programmes across Somalia, including in the capital Mogadishu and the suburbs of Afgooye and Daynille, as well as in Balad, Dinsor, Galkayo, Jilib, Jowhar, Kismayo, Marere, and Burao, where over 1,500 staff members will be removed from the country,” she said.
The most recent incidents include the brutal killing of two MSF staff in Mogadishu in December 2011. “The killer who was charged with 30 years in prison was released and still runs free in Somalia,” she added.
Another case involved the violent abduction of two staff members in the Dadaab refugee camps in Kenya that ended only last month after a 21-month captivity in south central Somalia.
In addition to dozens of attacks, the MSF organisation in Somalia had to take the exceptional measure of using armed guards, which it does not do in any other country, in order to respond to the needs of the population.
“Already receiving far less assistance than is needed, the armed groups’ targeting of humanitarian aid and civilians leaders’ tolerance of these abuses has effectively taken away what little access to medical care is available to the Somali people,” said Dr Unni Karunakara, MSF’s international president.
Dr Unni added that while the Somali population has never known the country without war or famine, the Somali civilians will ultimately pay the highest cost of the MSF’s withdrawal from the country.
With a total of 32,000 staff members working for the MSF, a team of 1,500 aid workers in Somalia will be stopped from providing medical assistance to hundreds of thousands of civilians. The MSF organisation has provided a range of services, including free primary health care, malnutrition treatment, maternal health, surgery, epidemic response, immunization campaigns, water, and relief supplies.
In 2012 alone, MSF teams 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.
By Jumana Khamis Staff Reporter
Gulf News 2013. All rights reserved.
