One of the few relief organizations to tough out more than two decades of civil war, famine and chaos, Doctors Without Borders announced Wednesday that it is closing all operations in Somalia because of “extreme abuses” by armed factions and government indifference toward them.
“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,” said Unni Karunakara, the international medical group’s president, in a scathing statement about the conditions driving the relief group to leave after 22 years. “We are ending our programs 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.”
Somalia last year installed its first elected government and president since the country collapsed into civil war in 1991. Despite an impression of emerging stability, huge areas of the country in the Horn of Africa remain torn by political and religious strife. Much of it has been provoked by the al-Qaeda-aligned al-Shabab militant group.
Sixteen staff members of Doctors Without Borders, known worldwide as MSF for its French name Medecins Sans Frontieres, have been killed. The organization has experienced dozens of attacks on its staff, ambulances and medical facilities since 1991, the group reported. Two MSF employees were shot and killed in Mogadishu in December 2011, and their convicted killer was given an early release from prison.
