MSF suspends Mogadishu operations after attack

The international humanitarian organisation, Medicins Sans Frontieres, or MSF, says it has suspended operations in the Somali capital, Mogadishu.

The move follows an attack by local militiamen on Tuesday in which at least twelve Somalis were killed.

Four foreign aid workers -- two Britons, a Belgian and a Frenchman of Algerian origin-- are still being held hostage. Community elders in Mogadishu are assisting negotiations for their release. MSF officials say the attackers' destruction of medical supplies means cholera victims are now at risk of dying.

The BBC East Africa correspondent says an apparent local dispute between rival armed groups has turned into a wider political battle between Somalia's new transitional government and faction leaders who oppose it. They are currently meeting in Ethiopia -- one Hussein Aideed blamed the government for the attack, saying it had misled international aid workers over the realities on the ground.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service