Killings force medical charity's withdrawal

[Jacaylbaro]

(CNN) -- The medical aid charity, Medecins Sans Frontieres, is pulling international staff out of Somalia after three of its members were killed.

 

 

MSF says hundreds of thousands of Somalis need urgent aid.

 

The group -- sometimes known as Doctors Without Borders -- said 87 non-Somali staff have been withdrawn from 14 projects across the country.

 

"As a mark of our respect and given the lack of clarity surrounding the circumstances of the attack, for the time being MSF has suspended all international staff presence," the group said in a news release.

 

U.N. officials have described the situation as a humanitarian crisis requiring worldwide efforts.

 

MSF said it believes the "organized attack" Monday -- a mine explosion along a road in Kismayo -- targeted its members.

 

"We find this attack against one of our teams absolutely intolerable and a serious violation of the humanitarian action to which our late colleagues were so committed," Dr. Christophe Fournier, international council president of MSF, said in the news release.

 

The MSF members killed were Victor Okumu, 51, a Kenyan doctor; Damien Lehalle, 27, a French logistician; and a Somali driver named Billan.

 

Hassan Kafi Hared, 36, a journalist working fro the Somali National News Agency, and a fight person, so far not named, also died in the attack. Initially, four people were reported dead.

 

Aid workers, journalist killed in blast

The attack "comes at a time when the country is facing a critical emergency with escalating violence, massive displacement and acute unmet medical needs," MSF said Friday.

 

"Mortality rates in several areas are far beyond emergency thresholds. Hundreds of thousands of Somalis are struggling to survive and are in urgent need of immediate assistance from the international community. They are the indirect victims of such attacks on humanitarian workers."

 

In recent months, Somali government troops backed by Ethiopian forces have battled Muslim militants daily, with the northern section of the capital Mogadishu hardest hit.

 

Many of the militants are aligned with the Islamic Courts Union, which controlled much of the country before being deposed in Ethiopia's December 2006 invasion.

 

The United States accuses the ICU of harboring suspected al Qaeda figures and did not protest Ethiopia's invasion.

 

In a written statement earlier this week, a representative of U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon said he condemned the attack and "demands a thorough investigation by the authorities."

 

In a statement issued Thursday, Amnesty International said: "In the current humanitarian emergency in Somalia and amid massive violations of international humanitarian and human rights law, humanitarian workers, human rights defenders and journalists have been particular targets of all parties to the conflict."

[Som@li]

Very bad news to thousands of needy Somalis.

 

Allah is with them.