MSF closes largest medical centres in Somali capital

By Katy Migiro

NAIROBI, Jan 19 (AlertNet) - Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) has shut down two major medical centres in the Somali capital Mogadishu after two of its aid workers were shot dead by a former colleague last month, the international medical aid agency said Thursday.

In late December, an Indonesian doctor and a Belgian emergency coordinator were killed by a former local employee who was arrested shortly afterwards, still holding his pistol.

"It is hard to close health services in a location where the presence of our medical teams is genuinely life-saving every day," Christopher Stokes, MSF's general director, said in a statement.

"But the brutal assassination of our colleagues in Hodan (district) makes it impossible for us to continue working in this district of Mogadishu."

The attack happened in a bustling part of the capital, which is under the control of the government and African Union troops.

Since then, MSF has withdrawn non-Somali staff from the facility where the attack took place.

The two 120-bed medical centres are the largest of MSF's 13 projects in Somalia. Their closure halves the medical charity's presence in Mogadishu. MSF said the facilities were serving an area with a population of 200,000.

Since August 2011, MSF's medical centres in Hodan District treated close to 12,000 malnourished children and provided measles vaccination or treatment to another 68,000 patients.