Somalia: An attack on Médecins Sans Frontières

Widespread violence throughout the country is posing a threat to humanitarian action. The population is in desperate need of assistance Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia. At the end of December, two members of Médecins Sans Frontières, Philippe and Andrias (who everybody called Kace), were killed in one of Mogadishu's hospitals. Dadaab, Somali refugee camps in the north of Kenya. Two female Médecins Sans Frontières staff members were kidnapped here. Blanca and Montserrat went missing three months ago. In the face of these two acts of aggression against its staff, Médecins Sans Frontières finds itself in a dilemma: how to assure the security of its teams in Somalia where emergency medical relief helps to save tens of thousands of lives? Médecins Sans Frontières has asked the Somali authorities and the people controlling the areas where Blanca and Monsterrat are being held to do their utmost to facilitate their release and to guarantee the security of humanitarian aid workers so that the population can continue to receive the care it so desperately needs.