Thursday, December 28, 2006
GENEVA (AFP) - The charity Medecins Sans Frontieres protested Thursday against Somali government troops forcing their way into one of their clinics and threatening medical staff.
Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) said Somali government troops entered a clinic it runs in Diinsor, in Bay province, on Wednesday, threatened Somali staff and confiscated patients’ medical records.
‘MSF strongly calls upon the parties in the conflict to respect international laws and guarantee the security of medical institutions and, in particular, of patients and medical personnel,’ it said in a statement.
Somali government forces backed by Ethiopian troops pushed into the capital, Mogadishu, on Thursday, after Islamist fighters retreated to the south of the country.
The entry into the capital came nine days after Ethiopian forces had defied pressure from other African nations by openly putting their air power and heavy artillery behind Somalia’s government, which had been left in control of just one town -- Baidoa -- after an Islamist onslaught earlier this year.
Source: AFP, Dec 28, 2006