/ 2 August 2008

MSF pulls out Darfur staff after robberies

International charity Médecins sans Frontières (MSF) said on Friday it had evacuated staff from troubled areas of Darfur in Sudan following a series of assaults, leaving 65 000 people without medical care.

Fifty-one staff were airlifted from Tawila and Shangil Tobaya, west and south of El Fasher, headquarters of a United Nations-led peacekeeping mission, to other parts of Sudan’s war-torn Darfur region, a spokesperson for MSF said.

The evacuation of both Sudanese and international staff followed two armed robberies in the past week. Assailants entered MSF compounds in Tawila and Shangil Tobaya, threatened staff at gunpoint and stole money, the group said.

”After these violent attacks we have had to suspend activities and evacuate all our staff from Tawila and Shangil Tobaya,” said Monica Camacho, the MSF head of mission in Darfur.

”The suspension of activities leaves more than 65 000 civilians, the majority of them displaced people, without medical assistance,” MSF said.

”It is impossible for our teams to work and provide medical aid without a minimum guarantee of security and respect for humanitarian work,” said Camacho.

MSF has evacuated staff and suspended activities several times since 2007 as a lack of security became increasingly rampant across Darfur.

On July 8, seven UN peacekeepers were killed in an ambush about 100km from Shangil Tobaya.

MSF provides assistance across Darfur — which is broadly the size of France — and has about 1 500 staff in the field.

According to the UN, up to 300 000 people have died and more than 2,2-million have fled their homes since the conflict in Darfur erupted in February 2003. Sudan says 10 000 have been killed.

The war began when African ethnic minority rebels took up arms against the Arab-dominated Khartoum regime and state-backed Arab militias, fighting for resources and power in one of the most remote and deprived places on Earth. — Sapa-AFP