Medical charity suspends work in Central African Republic town after militants kill baby
DAKAR: Medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) suspended operations in the town of Zemio in southeastern Central African Republic after militants shot and killed a baby in a hospital hosting thousands of people displaced by violence.
Two armed men entered the hospital in Zemio - about 1,000 km (620 miles) east of the capital Bangui - on Tuesday and threatened a family before opening fire on them, shooting the baby in the head and killing her instantly, according to MSF.
"The callousness of this attack highlights both the indiscriminate nature and disturbing escalation in violence in CAR against civilians ... and signals the diminishing space for aid organizations," said Mia Hejdenberg, MSF's head of mission.
"It has also forced the withdrawal of MSF's staff in Zemio leaving thousands without adequate access to healthcare in the region," she said in a statement.
A MSF spokeswoman told the Thomson Reuters Foundation that the staff had been relocated to Bangui on Wednesday morning and it was unclear when they would return to Zemio.
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