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	Deadly attacks force Doctors Without Borders to quit Somalia by MSF/ Alertnet MSF / Doctors Without Borders   11 Sep 2013   MSF denounces the targeting of civilians in a new wave of violence in Central African Republic (CAR).   The medical-humanitarian organisation MSF denounces the targeting of the civilian population in a new wave of violence that has erupted in Bouca, 325 km north of Bangui, in Central African Republic (CAR).   MSF treated 26 people, injured either by machetes or gunshots, including eight women and six children. This new wave of violence, in Bouca and also in Bossangoa region, is causing even more suffering to civilians already dealing with months of conflict and repeatedly being forced from their homes. MSF projects in Bossangoa, Batangafo and Paoua have all seen an increase in the number of patients admitted to health facilities due to violence related injuries in the last month.   Fighting broke out in Bouca at around six in the morning on Monday when armed men, purportedly supporting the ousted president François Bozizé, entered the village. They left the area before a group of Séléka forces returned. 26 injured people were treated by MSF teams while five people had to be transferred to the hospital in Batangafo due to their critical condition.   MSF is deeply concerned by the targeting of the civilian population and the atrocities committed by both parties in Bouca (an undetermined number of people killed, summary executions, houses burnt down). The medical organisation is also extremely worried about the consequences of the use of inflammatory sectarian rhetoric which started during the Séléka rebellion in March, that could fuel more violence in the country.   “We are highly concerned about a further escalation in fighting and retaliatory acts of violence”, says Sylvain Groulx, coordinator of MSF projects in CAR.   Neighbors from Bouca fled the village as many houses were burned down, while around 300 people are seeking refuge in a Catholic compound in the town. MSF is planning to start mobile clinics to monitor their situation and that of those hiding in the bush. At present, even more families are being driven from their homes and into the bush right in the middle of the time when people are most vulnerable to contracting malaria.   In the nearby town of Bossangoa, MSF teams are alarmed to have received more than twenty five separate cases of machete and gunshot victims in the last two weeks. This sudden escalation of sectarian violence has heightened the atmosphere of fear within the communities, with thousands of people fleeing the town in search of sanctuary.   The organisation is also worried about reported attacks against health workers and strongly condemns the senseless killing of two humanitarian workers from ACTED last Saturday in Bossangoa.   “MSF denounces these horrific acts of violence against the population, and calls on all parties to the conflict to respect the safety of non-combatants and medical and humanitarian aid workers”, states Groulx.   For the moment, MSF maintains its medical activities all around the country, those already set up before the March coup d’Etat and those recently established to respond to the acute needs of the population affected by displacement, high levels of malaria and the collapse and absence of the public health system in the country.   MSF is operating seven regular projects in CAR, while it has recently started emergency operations in four more locations.   14 Aug 2013   Deadly attacks force Doctors Without Borders to quit Somalia   MSF / Doctors Without Borders an international medical charity that was a lifeline for hundreds of thousands of Somalis announced on Wednesday it was pulling out of the country, saying the threat of deadly violence had become intolerable.   The withdrawal of Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), or Doctors Without Borders, is a blow to the government"s effort to persuade Somalis and foreign donors that security is improving and a stubborn Islamist insurgency is on the wane.   "The closure of our activities is a direct result of extreme attacks on our staff, in an environment where armed groups and civilian leaders increasingly support, tolerate or condone the killing, assaulting and abducting of humanitarian aid workers," Unni Karunakara, MSF"s international president, told reporters in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.   Sixteen MSF staff members have been killed in Somalia since 1991 when civil war erupted, but the charity stayed on, negotiating with militant groups and resorting to hiring armed guards, something it does not do in any other country.   "But we have reached our limit," Karunakara said, fighting back tears.   Within hours of the announcement, al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab militants raided one MSF hospital in southern Somalia, forcing patients out before ransacking it.   "They have ordered the patients in the hospital out and ... taken computers, hospital beds, and other valuable equipment," Ibrahim Mohamed Adan, district commissioner of the town of Diinsor in southern Somalia"s Bay region, told Reuters.   MSF"s departure will deprive hundreds of thousands of Somalis of medical help, Karunakara acknowledged. MSF treated about 300,000 Somalis in the first half of 2013.   Dozens of foreign MSF staff had pulled out of Somalia in past weeks, the charity said, while some 1,500 local doctors, nurses and assistants will now be jobless.   There was no immediate comment from the Somali government, which is struggling to pull the nation out of two decades of conflict and is unable to provide basic public services including health and education.   The pullout came a month after two female Spanish MSF workers were freed by their Somali kidnappers after almost two years in captivity.   In early 2012, MSF closed two major medical centres in the capital Mogadishu after two international staff were shot dead by a former colleague. Visit the related web page
	The Future of War and its Impact on Children by War Child UK   This discussion paper was produced for our 2013 Policy Forum which examined the future of conflict and what we will need to do to help protect children from it.   Recent conflict emergencies and protracted civil wars have highlighted the lack of available solutions to protect children from harm. International systems like the UN are no longer fit for purpose, having been built on the concept of World Wars as opposed to intrastate conflicts that now far outnumber international ones: 96% of conflicts in 2012 were fought within states rather than between them.   As War Child staff see on the ground every day, today’s conflicts often do not have decisive power imbalances that result in ‘winners and losers’. Although this means that once side does not possess the means to overpower the other, often resulting in the devastating loss of combatants, this power imbalance actually results in more prolonged wars. New technologies and systems for unleashing violence, combined with the constraints of UN mandates which are designed to uphold international peace and security, mean that children are growing more and more vulnerable to the devastation caused by modern conflicts. Visit the related web page
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