Médecins sans Frontières (MSF) Luxembourg has come forward to strongly condemn an ambush conducted against one of its teams in the Central African Republic on Wednesday during which an employee was killed.
On Wednesday 18 May 2016, an MSF convoy comprised of two apparently clearly-identified vehicles carrying staff and patients was stopped by armed men in Kouki, a village 81 km north of the town of Bossangoa. The team was forced to leave the vehicles, before being stripped of their possessions. A driver was killed during the incident, which lasted over forty minutes.
"It is unacceptable that our medical team and patients were attacked in providing emergency medical care in the region," commented Michelle Chouinard, head of the MSF mission in CAR. "It is outrageous that one of our colleagues was killed during such an incident. The MSF team and its patients were harassed, they received verbal threats and shots were fired near their heads."
Following the incident, MSF was forced to suspend its medical humanitarian activities in the region, where ir has been providing free medical care since 1997. The suspension will reportedly be lifted when MSF receives sufficient collateral for the safety of its personnel and the acception of its medical and humanitarian activities.
"Humanitarian workers must be protected in the exercise of their mission to the areas affected by violence," added Chouinard.
MSF announced that it is continuing to gather information regarding the circumstances of the incident and will not be offering further comment until all of the details are confirmed. MSF called on the police and local authorities to conduct a full investigation into the incident so that the perpetrators may be brought to justice.
MSF stated it was "shocked and deeply saddened" by the incident and expressed its condolences for the family of the deceased colleague.
