Somalia Too Dangerous; MSF first to pull out

[MJ360]

Dr Unni Karunakara, president of the charity said they were forced to leave an “environment where armed groups and civilian leaders increasingly support, tolerate, or condone the killing, assaulting, and abducting of humanitarian aid workers.”

Karunkara said that the same leaders and authorities with which MSF had to deal with daily to negotiate safety procedures, had “played a role in the abuses against MSF staff, either through direct involvement or tacit approval.

“Their actions and tolerance of this environment effectively cuts off hundreds of thousands of Somali civilians from humanitarian aid.”

The news will come as a blow to the United Nations and Western leaders, who hailed the election of the new Somali government in November 2012 as the region’s best chance for peace.

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/08 ... 60450.html

[OjOO]

Good

[MJ360]

Somalia is suffering an “explosive” outbreak of polio and now has more cases than the rest of the world combined, an official said Friday.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/som ... story.html

@ojoo

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.

All free service if I may add. I assure you there is nothing good in them pulling out specially at a time when Somalia faces epidemic outbreak of polio.

I too blame the country’s authorities in south central Somalia for effectively allowing the killers and threateners free reign to act with impunity against what has been an absolute godsend humanitarians.

[original dervish]

This is how the southern leaders keep their people hostage.