SOMALIA:Kidnappers freed the head of the UN refugee agency's office in Somalia yesterday, but rising insecurity forced Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) to close a clinic in Mogadishu that provided essential health care to hundreds of women and children.
The capital of Somalia is one of the most dangerous places in the world for aid workers to operate. More than 8,000 civilians have been killed in the Horn of Africa nation in fighting since the start of last year.
In a rare piece of good news, gunmen yesterday freed Hassan Mohammed Ali, a Somali who was in charge of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) local office, after holding him captive for more than two months. Security sources said he was in good health.
MSF said the risks to patients and staff were unacceptable and it was closing the clinic. "The closure comes following a further deterioration of the situation in the area where the clinic is located. There has been a notable increase in violence, including mortars landing close to the clinic."
In May and June of this year, the centre had been treating an average of 300 outpatients and 35 inpatients each day. MSF continues to run two other clinics in Mogadishu, as well as several other projects in central and southern Somalia.
The violence pitting the country's interim government and its Ethiopian military allies against Islamist rebels has uprooted 1 million people, triggering a humanitarian crisis which aid workers say is the worst in Africa.
- (Reuters)