A mother and her child at a Public Health Centre of one of the drought-affected districts in Kismayo, Somalia. Photo credit: WHO Somalia/I. Taxta1 May 2024, Mogadishu, Somalia – A 12-month project led by the WHO Country Office in Somalia over the course of 2023 reached 3 137 217 people affected by drought or flood. The project was made possible thanks to the generous support of the Government of Japan.

Initially intended to address drought, Japan’s support swiftly adapted to the evolving situation in Somalia. Starting in October 2023, the country was hit by El Niño-related heavy rainfall. This resulted in severe flooding that affected more than 2.4 million people and led to the destruction of 31 health facilities. The surge in demand for emergency health services prompted the reallocation of Japan’s available funds to also facilitate WHO’s flood response.

With the critical support of donors, including Japan, humanitarian and development actors worked with the Government of Somalia on the drought response. This successfully prevented a nationwide famine arising from the 2022–2023 drought crisis. There is still much work to be done, however, as the same communities continue to be affected by the impacts of other extreme climate events.

“The support from Japan played an important role in enabling WHO to reach millions of vulnerable individuals in Somalia who were affected by extreme climate events,” said Dr Ifeanyi Okudo, Incident Manager at WHO Somalia. “We are pleased to deliver the project objective of averting preventable loss of life by strengthening the outbreak detection and implementing an integrated health and nutrition package for the most affected.”

With over US$ 700 000 in financial support received from Japan, WHO was able to deploy 369 community health workers and 121 mobile outreach teams in drought-affected areas. These provided essential health and immunization services to local population with a special focus on children and pregnant and lactating women.

Through this project, basic health and nutrition services were delivered to more than 1.5 million people, including nearly 480 000 children aged under 5 years and more than 250 000 women of childbearing age. Through routine immunization efforts, close to 410 000 children received the pentavalent 3 and measles-containing vaccines.

This surge capacity to provide essential services effectively complemented the routine activities of the local health system, mitigating severe service disruption caused by climate events and consequent mass population displacement. The project also supported health facilities: for example, 369 primary health care units were provided with essential medicines and supplies, benefiting over 3 million people who receive their health services in these health facilities.

Japan’s funding also enabled WHO Somalia to support the treatment of children with severe acute malnutrition, by providing 29 stabilization centres with supplies and supervision support. A stabilization centre is a fixed health care unit where children with severe acute malnutrition with medical complications are referred, admitted, and treated. These WHO-supported stabilization centres maintain a cure rate of above 90%.

“The support from Japan and WHO has been vital in responding to drought and floods, and providing treatment to children suffering from severe acute malnutrition with medical complications [SAM/MC] at our stabilization centres,” said Mr Farhan Mohamed, Head of Nutrition, Federal Ministry of Health.

“Thanks to the comprehensive training sessions provided to health care providers, we have been able to enhance the capacity of our health care workers and provide high-quality services, resulting in a high cure rate for SAM/MC,” he added. “In addition, the funding made it possible for us to deploy critical resources and personnel to the most severely affected areas, where they had a significant impact on saving lives and averting famine.”

Finally, the project allowed WHO to help the Federal Ministry of Health enhance its epidemic surveillance and response mechanism through community-based surveillance. Now, community health workers send alerts based on danger signs they see in the communities they serve, and rapid response teams verify the alerts. As a result, 84.2% of all outbreak alerts raised in 2023 were addressed within 48 hours, and 92.1% of all cases were confirmed. WHO has also been assisting the Federal Ministry of Health to produce weekly epidemiological situation reports.

For more information, contact:

Madinur Saydahmat, Partnerships Officer, WHO Somalia
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Fouzia Bano, Communications Officer, WHO Somalia
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Minister of Health Dr Ali Hajiadam Abubakar poses for a group photo with health partners to kick-start World Immunization Week 2024 in Mogadishu, Somalia. Photo credit: UNICEF/Maslah29 April 2024, Mogadishu, Somalia – While marking World Immunization Week this year, Somalia’s Federal Ministry of Health, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) have jointly urged partners and donors to accelerate immunization efforts to reach every child in Somalia.

This year’s World Immunization Week coincides with the 50th anniversary of the global Essential Programme on Immunization and aims to spur greater engagement around immunization, to reiterate the importance of vaccination and improve the health and well-being of every child, everywhere. This year’s commemoration highlighted the successes of immunization in Somalia since 1978 and the challenges that require a concerted effort – the uninterrupted, 7-year circulation of the polio variant; the large number of children who have never been vaccinated (zero-dose children); the recurrent outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases like measles, diphtheria and whooping cough; and the need for an expanded resource envelope to tackle these challenges.

Speaking at a press conference in Mogadishu on Sunday, Federal Minister of Health for Somalia Dr Ali Hajiadam Abubakar said that despite Somalia having had the best-performing immunization programmes in the Eastern Mediterranean Region historically, prolonged conflict and instability in the last few decades have resulted in a weakened, fragmented and severely underfunded health system.

“This year’s theme – Humanly Possible – serves as a powerful reminder of our collective responsibility to ensure that every child in Somalia has access to life-saving vaccines. The introduction of new vaccines such as the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine and rotavirus vaccine later this year will further help us to combat pneumonia and diarrhoea, 2 diseases that contribute greatly to child mortality in Somalia,” he said.

“The coverage in Somalia is still insufficient to effectively combat vaccine-preventable diseases, and consequently we have experienced various outbreaks,” said Ms. Patience Musanhu, Senior Country Manager for Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. “I wish to reiterate Gavi’s commitment to continue its investment in vaccines and immunization to ensure equitable vaccination coverage across the country. I strongly urge all stakeholders to redouble their efforts to increase vaccination coverage to safeguard children against vaccine-preventable diseases.”

“Vaccines are one of the greatest success stories of public health. And yet, despite all the knowledge and resources available globally, children in Somalia continue to contract vaccine-preventable diseases. For example, in first quarter of 2024, 382 people have been confirmed for measles, 75% of which are children under 5 years of age in Somalia,” said Dr Reinhilde Van De Weerdt, WHO Representative to Somalia. “Greater efforts are needed, with an integrated approach to tackle the systemic challenges the country is facing by its health system, that affect the delivery of essential health services and hinder progress in Somalia’s commitment toward universal health coverage.”

Globally, immunization programmes have been the bedrock of primary health services in communities and countries due to their reach and coverage. A major landmark study released this week reveals that global immunization efforts have saved an estimated 154 million lives – or the equivalent of 6 lives every minute of every year – over the past 50 years. The vast majority of people saved – 101 million – were infants.

The study, led by WHO and to be published in The Lancet, shows that immunization is the single greatest contribution of any health intervention to ensuring babies not only see their first birthdays but also continue to lead healthy lives into adulthood.

“In Somalia, the threat from vaccine-preventable diseases remains alarmingly high, with an estimated 1.5 million children under 5 known as ‘zero-dose’ children. These children are the most vulnerable, having never received any vaccines, and are disproportionately affected by diseases such as measles, diphtheria and whooping cough,” said UNICEF Representative to Somalia Ms Wafaa Saeed. “Let us all commit, as leaders, health professionals and global citizens, to safeguard the future of our children by ensuring that every child in Somalia receives their right to immunization. Let’s make this humanly possible.”

Some of the challenges Somalia faces in ensuring all communities have access to vaccinations include a fragile health system, further impeded by conflict and natural disasters; limited access to cold chain facilities in remote areas and among hard-to-reach populations; and difficulty in reaching people living in insecure and inaccessible locations.

“The high number of unimmunized and underimmunized children in Somalia who live in contexts such as IDP [internally displaced person] camps, urban poor settings and hard-to-reach areas increases risks of vaccine-preventable disease outbreaks. For the past 5 years, we have been grappling to respond to at least 2 outbreaks each year, as evident from the national surveillance reports,” said Save the Children Acting Country Director Dr Binyam Gebru. “While we stand here today in solidarity to mark this World Immunization Week, let’s reaffirm our commitment to ensure every child in Somalia gets immunized, which is a basic human right, and I believe with concerted efforts, this is humanly possible."

Over the years, WHO, UNICEF and partners have extended support to Somalia to develop systems to store different vaccines, establish systems to vaccinate children, and to compile and store data around immunization for decision-makers to use. Despite all the challenges, Somalia has had some success in getting more children vaccinated using strategies such as mobile outreach facilities in addition to fixed vaccination sites. Additionally, teams of health workers and social mobilizers, supported by the government, WHO and UNICEF, are regularly visiting communities to share messages on the benefits of vaccination.

Yet the country needs more support to protect children, particularly vulnerable ones, from vaccine-preventable diseases such as measles, cholera, polio, diphtheria, tuberculosis, pertussis and tetanus.

For additional information, please contact:

Mohamed Osman, Head of Communication and Public Engagement, Federal Ministry of Health
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Victor Chinyama, Chief of Communication, UNICEF Somalia
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Fouzia Bano, Communications Officer, WHO Somalia
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A team engages in insecticide residual spraying as a core interruption measure in response to the malaria outbreak in Burtinle, in Puntland, Somalia. Photo credit: WHO Somalia/A. Mukhtar25 April 2024, Mogadishu, Somalia – Somalia managed to reduce the prevalence rate of malaria from 20.1% in 2015 to 4.1% in 2023 in the most affected areas by adopting an integrated disease response. The Federal Ministry of Health in Somalia led this work, with technical support from WHO and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and financial support from the Global Fund.

Applying prevention, interruption and supplementary measures, Somalia’s malaria programme reduced disease incidence to as low as 3.4% in 2022, as documented by the country’s National Malaria Control Programme. The slight increase in incidence in 2023, to 4%, was due to the impact of drought and floods in the country.

Marking World Malaria Day 2024, Dr Sagal Roble of the Federal Ministry of Health thanked the partners and donors for helping Somalia to achieve this tangible progress. She also urged the continued support of the partners to address the new strains of malaria emerging in the country and to sustain gains made in the fight against malaria across Somalia. Such an approach supports this year’s World Malaria Day theme of “Accelerating the fight against malaria for a more equitable world”.

During 2023, Somalia increasingly detected a new strain of the parasite Plasmodium falciparum, which is hard to detect with the usual rapid diagnostic test, as well as a new urban invasive vector for malaria, the mosquito Anopheles stephensi, in several districts.

A prolonged drought affected Somalia from 2022 to 2023, and the country has since been hit by heavy rainfalls due to the El Niño phenomenon. Such rapid changes to climate, including temperature, rainfall patterns and humidity, could easily lead to further geographic expansion of malaria transmission or new variation.

Somalia also has a large number of people on the move: nomadic communities, internally displaced people, and people entering from the neighbouring countries of Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya and Yemen. This tends to increase the disease prevalence, including malaria, owing to contributing factors such as overcrowded environments, limited access to health care, and lack of awareness.

Dr Jamal Amran, WHO Somalia’s focal person for malaria control, highlighted: “Detection of new malaria strains, compounded by persistent insecurity and health impacts of climate change, may exacerbate the malaria situation in the country.”

Malaria directly endangers health and costs lives. The disease also continues the vicious cycle of inequity, as it disproportionately affects the most vulnerable groups, including pregnant women, children aged under 5 years, refugees, migrants and internally displaced people.

The WHO Country Office in Somalia, in partnership with UNICEF, continues to support the Federal Ministry of Health to implement Somalia’s National Malaria Strategic Plan 2021–2026.

For more information, please contact:

Fouzia Bano, Communications Officer, WHO Somalia
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Saeed Ahmed, Donor Reporting Officer, WHO Somalia
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Related links

World Malaria Day 2023 – zeroing in on malaria

The Ministry of Health of Somalia receives medical equipment and supplies for 28 health facilities in Mogadishu. Photo credit: WHO Somalia/I. Taxta18 April 2024, Mogadishu, Somalia – Biomedical equipment and essential medicines are to reach 28 health facilities across Somalia thanks to the “Every Breath Counts” project, funded by the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre (KS Relief). The Federal Ministry of Health kicked off the distribution of the supplies in collaboration with the WHO Country Office in Somalia.

The project supports quality emergency care of severe cases of pneumonia and diarrhoea for children. A child born in Somalia today is almost 20 times more likely to die by the age of 5 years than a child born elsewhere due to childhood diseases. Therefore, “Every Breath Counts” aims to reduce childhood pneumonia- and diarrhoea-related morbidity and mortality in Somalia.

Under the KS Relief-funded project, WHO Somalia supports the state-level of health ministries with the provision of life-saving health interventions in primary health centres and referral hospitals. This is done in line with WHO guidelines for the integrated management of newborn and childhood illnesses. Support provided for the health facilities includes the establishment of triage protocols and oral rehydration treatment corners, and provision of medical oxygen and essential medicines.

Dr Guled Abdi Jalil Ali, Director-General of the Federal Ministry of Health of Somalia, officiated the handover ceremony of medical equipment and supplies. Representatives from the KS Relief country team, the Ministry and WHO Somalia were present.

Speaking in appreciation of WHO Somalia’s technical support and the financial support of KS Relief, Dr Guled said: “Considering that child mortality from all causes in Somalia remains the highest in the world, this project is a critical contribution to help improve the coverage and quality of care for our children, with a focus on the main killer diseases, and to build health care capacities.”

Following the recipient of the equipment and medical supplies, the state-level health ministries, with support from WHO Somalia, will deliver equipment and supplies to the targeted facilities to improve the quality of care. In addition, supplies, such as vitamin A, folic acid, albendazole (deworming tablets), zinc and oral rehydration solution, will be distributed at the community level through community health workers to strengthen the delivery of health services.

Mr Mohamed Omar Hassan, Media Officer at KS Relief country team in Somalia, thanked the Federal Ministry of Health and WHO Somalia for their hard work in implementing the project and for their ongoing and successful partnership.

For more information, please contact:

Fouzia Bano, Communications Officer, WHO Somalia
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Saeed Ahmed, Donor Reporting Officer, WHO Somalia
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For more details about WHO’s response across Somalia, see:

Every Breath Counts: increasing access to medical oxygen in Somalia