UN expresses outrage over MSF attack

The United Nations has expressed outrage over the killing of five staff members of the international relief agency Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) in the Qadis district of northwestern Badghis province on Wednesday. "The United Nations family in Afghanistan is deeply shocked and outraged by Wednesday's attack on a vehicle of the MSF staff," Manoel de Almeida e Silva, a spokesman for the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) in the Afghan capital Kabul, said on Thursday. Three aid workers - a Dutch man, a Belgian woman and a Norwegian man, along with two Afghan men - a driver and translator, were killed in the attack when the vehicle they were traveling in was ambushed, prompting MSF to temporarily suspend its activities in the country. According to the UN spokesman, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Afghanistan (SRSG) Jean Arnault condemned in the strongest terms what appears to be yet another tragic and unacceptable act directed at the aid community. He expressed his solidarity with MSF, offering his deepest sympathies to the families and friends of the slain MSF colleagues. The SRSG called on the Afghan authorities to investigate and bring the killers to justice, as well as directing that all UN assets in Afghanistan be made available to support MSF at this most difficult time, the spokesman said. A UNAMA helicopter left Kandahar on Thursday morning and would be providing transport facilities to MSF between Herat and Badghis, to bring the bodies of three of the international staff members back to Kabul for repatriation. The UN spokesman noted that the Special Representative has called upon the Afghan people and leaders to reject those groups who commit acts of violence and to support the efforts to build a more peaceful, just and prosperous Afghanistan. According to a statement by MSF on Thursday, the international NGO would be temporarily suspending its activities in Afghanistan. "For the time being our activities will be suspended nationwide, except for life-saving activities," the read. MSF, which has been working in Afghanistan since 1979, has been active in Badghis province since 1999. With a staff of some 80 expatriates and around 1,400 national staff, MSF Afghanistan works in 12 provinces in activities ranging from primary health care to support for provincial and regional hospitals.