International Medical Corps announced Wednesday it had temporarily suspended all program activities in and around the Somali town of El-Berde until security conditions improve there. All IMC staff members employed in El-Berde have been urged to relocate immediately and have been offered help in evacuating to safer areas.

IMC's decision to suspend its programs there comes six days after a staff nurse and a contract rental car driver were shot dead in the latest bout of violence apparently linked to clan rivalries in the region. IMC President & CEO Nancy Aossey said the move was made because of ongoing tensions and the threat of continued hostilities in the area.

"It's tragic, but we have no choice—we have to protect our staff," Aossey said. "The fact that we are forced to leave this area because of violence at a time thousands of Somalis need us for basic health and nutritional care is a sad commentary on the failure of political will to resolve a crisis that is now well into its second decade."

She said IMC would resume its humanitarian assistance in El-Berde, about 250 miles northwest of the capital, Mogadishu, as soon as a secure working environment is re-established.

Somalia is today regarded as one of the most dangerous countries in the world, a place beset by a seemingly endless cycle of Inter-clan fighting and the conflict between remnants of the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) with the Ethiopian army backing the Transitional Government. Meanwhile, much of an 8,000-strong peacekeeping force pledged by the African Union has failed to materialize.

International Medical Corps has been assisting the victims of war in Somalia since 1991 and was one of the first international relief agencies to enter Mogadishu after civil war broke out there. International Medical Corps is a Los Angeles, California-based relief organization founded in 1984 that operates in 25 countries worldwide.