MSF pulls foreign staff from Somalia after 2 killed

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) suspended its operations in Somalia on Friday after a roadside bomb killed two foreign aid workers employed by its Dutch arm this week.
The blast in the southern port town of Kismayu on Monday killed the Kenyan doctor and a French logistics officer instantly, along with a Somali driver. A Somali journalist nearby died after being showered with shrapnel.
"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 president of MSF, said in a statement.

Somalia is considered one of the world's most dangerous places for foreigners to work. Few aid workers go there and those that do risk being kidnapped or killed.
"Although life-saving medical activities continue under the supervision of our dedicated Somali colleagues, the suspension will clearly hamper the essential medical work of MSF in Somalia," Fournier said.
More than 6,500 people have been killed and a million displaced from the capital Mogadishu since allied Somali and Ethiopian troops drove Islamists out at the end of 2006, sparking a deadly insurgency. Malnutrition and disease are rife.
The United Nations refugee agency this week called Somalia the world's most pressing humanitarian crisis, even worse than Sudan's war-shattered Darfur region.

Source: Reuters