Group closes Somali hospital after shooting

International humanitarian group Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) has decided to close down the largest medical center of its Somali mission in Mogadishu, following the fatal shooting of two of its international staff last month.

MSF Somali mission head Philippe Havet from Belgium and Indonesian doctor Andrias Karel Keiluhu were shot dead on Dec. 29 at their office near a pediatric hospital run by the Geneva-based group in Mogadishu.

“It’s not easy to close down a health center in a place where our medical team is very much needed every day to save the lives of many people,” MSF director general Christopher Stokes said in a press statement sent to The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

“But, the killing of two of our staff in Hodan has forced us to cease activities in Mogadishu,” he added.

The pediatric hospital in the Mogadishu district of Hodan had a capacity of 120 beds, focusing on the treatment of children with malnutrition, measles and cholera.

The statement said, however, that MSF would continue its medical assistance in at least 10 other locations in Somalia; outside the capital. (nvn)