NAIROBI, Aug. 22 (HANA)--International humanitarian medical organization, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) on Monday sounded an alarm over increasing violence in parts of Somalia which it said is derailing relief operations to the lawless Horn of African nation.

    In a statement issued in Nairobi, the MSF decried that the suffering of the Somalia people has received little attention from relief organizations and the international community.

   'The frightening fact is that Somalia is officially not even at war,' MSF head of mission Colin Mcllreavy said in a statement.

     'This level of violence is simply a reflection of the brutality of everyday life for the people living in this country.  Extreme violence has become a part of daily existence and the effect on the population is catastrophic,” the medical charity said.

  It said it has treated over 500 cases of violent trauma injuries in the town of Galkayo in central Somalia in this year alone.

     In Mudug region, home to an estimated 350,000 people, MSF said it was forced to operate separate hospitals in the north and the south of the principal city of Galkayo because patients cannot cross the frontline that splits the town in two.

   The organization said it is regularly forced to temporarily suspend its medical activities due to the violence, or the threat of violence against staff and patients.

    'Violence seriously limits the work of MSF and that of other organizations,” said Mcllreavy.

     “In the first six months of 2005, in the north, MSF doctors treated 397 patients for injuries related to violence. 224 of these were due to gunshots, while 135 were knife-related and a further 38 came from physical assault,” it said.

   “In the southern hospital, in the first three months of 2005 alone, 106 patients were treated for gunshot wounds. Many of the victims are women and children,” MSF added.

    The Horn of African nation with no government for 14 years has no functioning health system and some of the worst health indicators in the world.

     Over one in ten children die at birth and of those that survive, a quarter will perish before their fifth birthday.

    'We know for a fact that the already huge number of violence-related injuries we treat are just the tip of the iceberg.  Violence severely limits people's access to our medical facilities,' Mcllreavy said.

    The medical organization is also providing medical aid in Somalia's capital Mogadishu and in the regions of Bakool, Lower Juba and western Bay.

  The transitional government which was formed in Kenya last year after two years of a peace process in Nairobi is trying to restore law and order but with little success.    

   The interim government is the 14th attempt to restore effective administration to Somalia since it collapsed into chaos after the overthrow of military ruler Mohammed Siad Barre in 1991.
    Conflict and famine have killed hundreds of thousands of people since then in the country of up to 10 million. Enditem