MSF calls for lifting flight ban

The international aid organisation Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) has demanded that the Kenyan government lift its ban on all flights, including humanitarian flights, to and from Somalia. Kenya imposed the ban on 20 June after the US warned of a possible imminent terrorist attack on its embassy in the capital, Nairobi. In a statement, MSF said the ban was "severely hampering" the provision of humanitarian assistance to Somalia, most of which is transported from Nairobi by air. Most aid agencies working in Somalia depend on UN and ECHO (European Commission Humanitarian Aid Office) flights to deliver their assistance to needy Somalis, "especially those who work in the medical field", a humanitarian source told IRIN on Friday. MSF warned that unless flights resumed quickly, ongoing MSF humanitarian aid programmes in Somalia, including services in three hospitals and 14 health centers, would be disrupted. "Even more critical is the effect the flight ban will have on MSF's ability to respond to medical emergencies in the country," it said. The statement added that before the ban was imposed, the agency had been planning to launch "an urgently needed" emergency nutritional programme for malnourished children in the Lower Juba Region [southern Somalia], where a nutritional crisis has already claimed the lives of more than 20 children in the past 10 days. It said more deaths were likely unless MSF was able to extend medical assistance.