British aid charity Save the Children is pulling all 350 of its staff out of the strife-torn Darfur region of Sudan after the killing of four staff members in the past two months.
"We are devastated that we are unable to continue to offer health care, nutritional support, child protection and education to the approximately 250,000 children and family members served by our current programmes," charity chief Mr Mike Aaronson said today.
"However, we just cannot continue to expose our staff to the unacceptable risks they face as they go about their humanitarian duties in Darfur," he added.
"We hope to one day resume operations in Darfur . . . once the security situation has stabilised."
Two of the charity's workers were killed on December 12th in an attack the United Nations blamed on rebels fighting government forces in the region. Two others were killed in October when their vehicle hit a landmine.
Tens of thousands of people have been killed and around 1.8 million forced to flee in nearly two years of fighting between rebels, government forces and Arab militias called Janjaweed. The Khartoum government has rejected charges that it is backing the Janjaweed.
The African Union, which is trying to mediate, has warned the region is a ticking bomb with vast quantities of arms and ammunition flooding in.
Earlier this month the head of British aid charity Oxfam was forced to quit Sudan after being accused of working under the wrong visa.