Doctors Without Borders is probably the hardiest and most non-political of the humanitarian groups. It is usually the first in and the last out of world disaster areas, providing care in the most difficult of circumstances to the most miserable victims of sometimes savage conflicts. Thus it has been in Somalia, where it has operated since 1991, when the government there collapsed.
That area on the map — divided, without coherent government, torn by inter-clan and religion-inspired fighting since 1991 — has been the site of deadly fighting that has claimed up to 1.5 million lives and displaced another 2.3 million.
Some international organizations, including the United Nations and the African Union, after having spent some $60 billion there, like to pretend that the current body seated — sometimes — in Mogadishu, the capital, is gaining strength and support among Somalis. In fact, the area has at least three different governments — in Mogadishu, in Puntland, and in Somaliland, with other, more local bodies ruling in other towns and areas of what used to be Somalia, making the claim it is coming back together after 22 years a wish or a joke.
The body in Mogadishu depends on the presence of 18,000 foreign troops financed from abroad. A Somali national army is being trained by foreign troops, but the general view is that the Mogadishu government would be forced to flee the countryif the foreign troops were withdrawn. …
Medecins Sans Frontieres is pulling out, not because it is no longer needed but because it does not feel it can continue to work there in safety. The decision to leave was made after violent attacks on the organization’s staff members, who treated some 665,300 Somalis last year.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
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