The medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) has evacuated its staff and suspended its programmes after its base in Bangassou was violently robbed on Monday night. Four patients have died and thousands are stranded without healthcare in an embattled Central African Republic town, after the attack forced the last charity working there to pull out. 50 urgently needed surgery or were in intensive care when doctors and nurses left them in the hospital. The southeastern diamond-mining town, which borders the Democratic Republic of Congo, has witnessed some of the deadliest clashes this year between rival militias, as violence has escalated throughout the country.
"This was a really tough decision for us, but we cannot put the lives of our staff on the line," MSF's head of mission Frederic Lai Manantsoa told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. "Leaving the population utterly abandoned is a painful admission."
MSF was the last aid organisation working in Bangassou as violence has pushed others out in recent months. Half a million people in the region depended on MSF for health services. The area is controlled by armed groups fighting over land and resources who frequently target civilians.
"This was a really tough decision for us, but we cannot put the lives of our staff on the line," MSF's head of mission Frederic Lai Manantsoa told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. "Leaving the population utterly abandoned is a painful admission."
MSF was the last aid organisation working in Bangassou as violence has pushed others out in recent months. Half a million people in the region depended on MSF for health services. The area is controlled by armed groups fighting over land and resources who frequently target civilians.
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