Saving lives and limbs: WHO scales up its trauma response in Somalia
11 December, 2022, Cairo – Somalia witnessed one of its worst mass casualty incidents with the double bomb blast on 29 October 2022, which resulted in more than 117 civilians dead and over 344 injured. Approximately 70% of the trauma deaths occurred before victims could reach the hospital.
A major public health burden in Somalia, exacerbated by the conflict, trauma accounts for nearly 80 lives lost and over 200 civilians injured from blast injuries every month in Mogadishu alone. Children constitute at least one third of the total casualties, many of whom are left with a life-long disability. The rising violent incidents and associated deaths are increasing and there is an urgent need to capacitate the country’s trauma response. The World Health Organization has deployed its Regional Trauma Operational and Advisory Team (TOpAT) to Mogadishu to provide surge support and technical support.
TOpAT’s preliminary findings revealed that at least one third of the deaths could have been avoided with an adequate prehospital care system. However, there is no unified prehospital care system spanning the country, or indeed the capital Mogadishu, despite the high number of mass casualty incidents. To make matters worse, those at the frontline, and first responders, have little access to training or even supplies.