WHO has been supporting the Government with life-saving supplies for children with severe acute malnutrition and medical complications (Baidoa, 2022). Credit: WHO/Somalia 

30 May 2022 – Fatima Ahmed Ali and her one-year-old son Abdullahi are just two of many Somalis whose lives have changed due to the ongoing drought in Somalia. This drought is reported to be one of the worst in recent history. Yet, they are among the lucky ones to have received timely medical attention. 

Living as a pastoralist in a rural area in Gardo, Puntland, Fatima says they are used to seeing droughts come and go, but this one has been severe. Neighbours are trying to help each other as families are losing all their livestock, while children everywhere are suffering from diseases, many of which are preventable. Several families have no money to support their loved ones, and some do not know where to go if they have nutrition-related health problems, she explains. 

Stabilization centres address complications  

In April 2022, when Abdullahi fell really ill, a family member took Fatima and her son to a health centre nearby, in Yako. From there, a health worker directed them to the Gardo Stabilization Centre for specialized attention.  

At stabilization centres like the one Fatima visited, trained health workers assess the condition of patients, particularly those who are suffering from severe acute malnutrition with medical complications. They stabilize the condition of these severely acutely malnourished children with appropriate feeding, micronutrient supplementation, correction of dehydration status, and appropriate treatment and care for medical complications. WHO is supporting 53 such stabilization centres across the country to treat severely acute malnourished children with medical complications. WHO’s support includes training of health care workers on the clinical management of patients and organization of stabilization centres, provision of appropriate medical supplies, such as the severe acute malnutrition kits, and ensuring and monitoring quality of care. In 2021, a total of 14 430 children under 5 received treatment in these stabilization centres, with a 95% cure rate. 

“Abdullahi was not eating at all before we got here. He had a fever and could not even sleep. I felt really helpless,” said Fatima. “I am grateful for the support he received at the stabilization centre. After taking medication, Abdullahi was able to rest and eat again.”

Fatima hopes to see conditions improve in Somalia, where every year communities face natural disasters. WHO’s support to these stabilization centres is saving the lives of thousands of malnourished children who have had medical complications in Somalia, like the son of Fatima. 

WHO provides life-saving critical support to save lives 

Credit: WHO/SomaliaThe current food insecurity situation in Somalia owing to drought continues to worsen. Four consecutive failed rainy seasons and increasing economic pressures are deepening the severity of needs and driving the country to the brink of famine.  An estimated 49% of the population – 7.7 million people – require some form of humanitarian or protection assistance, of whom 6.13 million are estimated to be affected by the drought. 

Of these 6.1 million people across the country who are food insecure, including nearly 1.7 million who are suffering from extreme levels of hunger, an estimated 1.4 million children under 5 and more than 250 000 pregnant and lactating women will need treatment and care for malnutrition.

WHO’s current drought response operations, including its critical life-saving support is funded by the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF), the European Union and WHO’s Contingency Fund for Emergencies (CFE).

At the household level, due to the ongoing drought in Somalia, WHO supports community health workers to visit families to determine who needs urgent support. In drought-affected areas, they measure the circumference of children’s upper arms to assess their levels of malnourishment, and whether they need to visit stabilization centres for medical attention.   

“Currently, 1.4 million Somali children are known to be acutely malnourished. The support we are providing has reduced the number of deaths caused by medical complications related to severe acute malnutrition. We have also stepped up our life-saving critical support while responding to this drought, such as expanding access to essential health and nutrition services at the community and primary health centre level, as well as keeping a vigilant eye on diseases that are evolving in epidemic proportions and containing them at source. However, WHO has a funding gap of close to US$ 39 million between now and the end of the year to support, maintain and scale up our life-saving operations. Closing this gap will mean that we are able to prevent excess deaths in a fragile setting suffering one of the worst humanitarian crises in their lifetime,” said Dr Mamunur Rahman Malik, WHO Representative to Somalia and Head of Mission.  

School-aged children receive essential medicines to tackle schistosomiasis and soil-transmitted helminth infections. WHOSomalia/Khurram Sajjad.29 May 2022 – Neglected tropical diseases affect people who lack regular access to adequate sanitation, basic health infrastructure and health services. These diseases can lead to significant morbidity, mortality, stigma and discrimination in communities. 

Prevalence of neglected tropical diseases                                                                                                                              

Of the 20 neglected tropical diseases listed by WHO as endemic in tropical countries, schistosomiasis and soil-transmitted helminth infections, along with leprosy and visceral leishmaniasis, are common in Somalia. About 5 to 6 million people in the country live in the areas that are highly endemic for these diseases.   

Between 2016 and 2017, WHO and the Ministry of Health and Human Services of Somalia conducted a mapping exercise to determine where neglected tropical diseases affect people. They found unexpected cases of intestinal schistosomiasis due to Schistosoma mansoni, or snails, in the South West state and in Banadir. Hookworms are known to be common in these locations too.

Communities living in South West Somalia, across the middle and lower valleys of the Shabelle and Juba rivers, reportedly suffer the most from these diseases. Additionally, internally displaced persons are also among the most affected, due to their living conditions. 

Reducing spread of infections 

To reduce prevalence of these diseases, the World Health Organization (WHO) has been providing support to the Federal Government of Somalia to conduct mass drug administration campaigns since 2017.

On 7 May 2022, the country embarked on an 18-day effort to provide essential medicines, namely praziquantel and metronidazole, to around 2.48 million school-aged children (aged between 5 and 14 years) and adults in 39 districts. Health care workers have been visiting schools and madrasas to reach children and using community-based initiatives to target adults. These efforts will reduce the reservoir of infection and interrupt disease spread.

The last campaign, conducted in 2020, administered these essential medicines to around 2.6 million school-aged children and over 300 000 adults in 41 districts. It covered around 91% of a targeted 3.18 million people. 

WHO is supporting the Government to conduct the fourth mass drug administration campaign in Somalia since 2017. WHOSomalia/Khurram Sajjad.In addition to offering medicines to control and eradicate schistosomiasis and soil-transmitted helminth infections, WHO has supported the federal and state governments to increase public awareness about them. They have reached out to the most vulnerable groups, including internally displaced persons. These interventions have been possible with support from the END Fund and Expanded Special Project for Elimination of Neglected Tropical Diseases (ESPEN). 

“These interventions of WHO are in line with the new WHO road map for neglected tropical diseases "Ending the neglect to attain the Sustainable Development Goals: a road map for neglected tropical diseases 2021–2030," which sets global targets and milestones to prevent, control, eliminate or eradicate 20 neglected tropical diseases and disease groups, now prioritized by WHO, and attain the SDGs,” said Dr Mamunur Rahman Malik, WHO Representative for Somalia.

“We also believe that whatever we do and whatever strategy we undertake to eliminate the risk of neglected tropical diseases from Somalia, our efforts should contribute to building a strong foundation for the primary health care system in such a fragile health system setting. Creating demand for eliminating this disease from school-aged children and making sure that the health system delivers such public good in real-time are all part of our work in this country, aiming to build resilience,” commented Dr Mamunur Rahman Malik, on the eve of the launch of the mass drug administration campaign for schistosomiasis and soil-transmitted helminthiasis.  

In line with the national action plan for Somalia, WHO and its partners, such as the ESPEN and END Fund, intend to support national health authorities to conduct mass drug administration campaigns with increased national coverage for schistosomiasis, including more than 75% of treatment coverage for school-aged children, to eliminate the disease as a public health problem by 2025. The campaigns will also treat soil-transmitted helminthiasis, including deworming coverage for at least 75% of eligible school-aged children and pre-school children by 2026.  

Both schistosomiasis and soil-transmitted helminth infections are spread due to a lack of hygiene, when people do not have access to water and sanitation facilities, or do not wash their hands often, particularly before meals or after excretion. 

For additional information, please visit:

ESPEN: ESPEN | Expanded Special Project for Elimination Neglected Tropical Diseases (who.int)

The END Fund: Home - The END Fund

WHO Somalia/Fouzia BanoMogadishu, 11 May 2022 – During his 3-day visit to Somalia, the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean Dr Ahmed Al-Mandhari visited North Galkacyo in Puntland state of Somalia to oversee WHO’s ongoing drought response activities, see the work of community health workers in delivering integrated health and nutrition services to the people displaced by the recent drought in Somalia and visit one of the internally displaced population’s camps to see the challenges faced by the communities in meeting their health, nutrition, food and water and sanitation needs. 

Later on, he attended an event in Mogadishu where the WHO emergency health response plan for drought was officially launched, which was also attended by HE Dr Fawziya Abikar Nur, Minister of Health and Human Services of the Federal Government of Somalia, Mr Jocelyn Mason, the United Nations Resident Coordinator for Somalia ad interim and Mr Mugatte Guisse, the United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia ad interim.

The ongoing drought in Somalia and across the Horn of Africa is known to be the region’s worst in the last four decades. In Somalia alone, an estimated 6.1 million people have been affected by the drought, of whom 759 400 have been displaced in search of water, food and pasture; 3.5 million lack sufficient access to water; and 6 million continue to face severe food shortages, with approximately 1.4 million children facing acute malnutrition, including 329 500 likely to become severely malnourished. So far, a total of 3675 suspected cases of cholera and 2720 cases of measles have been confirmed since January 2022 from the drought-affected areas.

WHO Somalia/Fouzia Bano“Whenever natural disasters strike, diseases inevitably follow, particularly in fragile contexts. At all levels, WHO is leaving no stone unturned to support the people of Somalia to cope with the effects of drought,” said Dr Al-Mandhari. “As one of the first responders on the ground, WHO is working with the government, donors and other UN agencies and health cluster partners to reduce the spread of diseases and complications related to malnutrition, while simultaneously rebuilding health systems to cope with similar calamities in the future." 

WHO’s emergency health response plan for drought in Somalia for 2022 urgently requires US $35 million over the next 10 months to deliver emergency life-saving operations to reach over 2.5 million vulnerable people in the worst-affected parts of the country. 

Dr Al-Mandhari explained that the drought response plan, which will serve as WHO’s blueprint for intensifying efforts to save more lives and cushion Somalis from severe forms of disease and malnutrition, was based on lessons learnt from past droughts in Somalia and would help to prevent epidemics, save lives, protect communities’ health and nutrition needs, and avert an additional health crisis. He praised the Federal Government and UN partners for their collaborative efforts, emphasizing that the true essence of the WHO's regional Vision 2023 of “health for all by all” was in the solidarity displayed in the ongoing drought response work. 

WHO Somalia/Fouzia Bano.“WHO is responding to Somali families’ most dire needs, and is working to ensure every Somali household, including the most vulnerable, can access emergency life-saving support especially during emergencies. The WHO emergency health response plan for drought in Somalia calls for early action on a no-regrets basis. It is imperative that WHO has access to flexible, smart and unearmarked funds to scale up our life-saving operations in hard-to-reach areas to protect the health and well-being of the people impacted by the drought” said Dr Mamunur Malik, WHO Representative to Somalia.

For additional information, please contact: 

Kyle DeFreitas, Lead
External Relations
WHO Somalia
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Fouzia Bano
Communications Officer/Chief of Staff a.i.,
WHO Somalia
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Director of Business and Operations Services of the WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean Dr Sussan Bassiri, WHO Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean Dr Ahmed Al-Mandhari, Federal Minister of Health and Human Services HE Dr Fawziya Abikar Nur, and WHO Representative in Somalia Dr Mamunur Rahman Malik. WHO Somalia/Fouzia Bano 

Mogadishu, 9 May 2022 – On 9 May 2022, the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean Dr Ahmed Al-Mandhari arrived in Somalia for a 3-day visit. He was accompanied by the Director of Business and Operations Services of the WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean Dr Sussan Bassiri. 

The Federal Minister of Health and Human Services HE Dr Fawziya Abikar Nur other high-level government officials and the WHO Representative to Somalia Dr Mamunur Rahman Malik extended a warm welcome to Dr Al-Mandhari, who is visiting Somalia for the second time since 2019. He is visiting Somalia at a time when the country is rolling out an Essential Package of Health Services (EPHS 2020). The development and implementation of the EPHS 2020 is seen as the largest public sector project in the history of Somalia that aims to increase access to health care, improve health services delivery and coverage using the primary health care approach. WHO has supported the development of the EPHS 2020 of Somalia through a broad range of technical support involving its Regional Office and headquarters, which includes a burden of disease analysis costing, as well as design of cost-effective but high-impact interventions to be delivered at different levels of care. The EPHS 2020 will be financed by the World Bank and the Global Financing Facility over the next 5 years over a budget outlay of US$ 100 million. The EPHS 2020 will be the main driver of the country to achieve universal health coverage.    

The WHO country office will continue to support the Ministry of Health and Human Services of the Federal Government of Somalia to roll out the EPHS in the country, as well as the delivery of other impactful interventions to protect health, save lives and build a resilient health systems through its recently developed "Country Cooperation Strategy for WHO and Somalia 2021–2025".

WHO Somalia/Fouzia Bano

As part of his programme, Dr Ahmed Al-Mandhari met HE Dr Fawziya Abikar Nur and other officials of the ministry at her office on 9 May 2022 and discussed the ongoing collaborative programme between her ministry and the WHO country office. The WHO Regional Director thanked the Minister for her leadership over the past 5 years and expressed appreciation of her key role in guiding health sector reforms in the country and working relentlessly to improve the health and well-being of the population in a most challenging, complex and fragile context. The WHO Regional Director recalled that these reforms that she initiated for the health sector will go a long way in achieving universal health coverage and support implementation of WHO's regional Vision 2023: Health for all by all.   

The WHO Regional Director also visited the De Martino Hospital in Mogadishu – the main public hospital that serves the capital city of the country and was the main hospital in the country treating COVID-19 patients. The WHO Regional Director lauded the health workers for their hard work in saving lives with limited resources and in the face of multiple challenges. 

WHO Somalia/Fouzia Bano

While addressing the health workers, Dr Al-Mandhari further reiterated that in line with the spirit of Vision 2023 “Health for all by all”, WHO would continue to support Somalia to strengthen the health system, infrastructure and health care workers’ skills, while concurrently preparing for and responding to any health emergencies that may arise. 

Later on, Dr Ahmed Al-Mandhari accompanied by HE Dr Fawziya Abikar Nur and other high-level government officials, visited 2 landmark achievements stemming from WHO's COVID-19 response activities. First, they visited the new Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) oxygen plant that was installed at the De Martino Hospital with support from WHO, which is helping to fill a large gap in high-grade medical oxygen availability in the country for COVID-19 and other health conditions. The containerized duplex PSA system is serving 25 intensive care unit beds  while concurrently refilling 100 40-litre oxygen cylinders per day. WHO plans to set up similar containerized duplex PSA plants in several other locations as part of the Organization’s vision to bridge medical oxygen access gaps in hospitals and primary level care. 

WHO Somalia/Fouzia Bano

After viewing the PSA plant, the Minister and Dr Ahmed Al-Mandhari paid a visit to the National Public Health Reference Laboratory (NPHRL) in Mogadishu, where the Regional Director saw just how far Somalia had come with respect to laboratory testing and the newly developed capacity for genome sequencing. The NPHRL was supported by WHO in 2020 at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic to attain molecular diagnostic capacity for testing of SARS-COV-2 when there was no testing facility for COVID-19 in the country. The NPHRL using rt-PCR is now able to test and detect COVID-19, as well as other epidemic and pandemic-prone pathogens in real-time In March 2022, WHO supported the NPHRL to build genome sequencing capacity that will help the country to detect and monitor circulation of new variants of COVID-19, influenza viruses, map genomes of other bacteria and viruses of epidemic and pandemic potential. 

WHO Somalia/Fouzia Bano

“Our Regional Director’s second visit to Somalia is an honour for the WHO Somalia country office and for the country. It shows WHO’s commitment to Somalia in responding to emergencies, while re-establishing resilient health systems that can cope with the impact of calamities, as well as any future emergencies. WHO will continue to develop strong foundations in health across the country and strive to build a fairer and equitable health system that serves all and not just a few," said Dr Mamunur Rahman Malik, WHO Representative to Somalia.

For additional information, please contact:

Kyle DeFreitas, Lead – External Relations, WHO Somalia < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it >

Fouzia Bano, Communications Officer / Chief of Staff a.i., WHO Somalia < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it >

Note to editors

Please see the link below for additional information on the WHO Regional Director’s last mission to Somalia, in September 2019, where Dr Ahmed Al-Mandhari launched the country’s roadmap to universal health coverage, together with the Federal Minister of Health and Human Services and WHO Representative to Somalia.

WHO EMRO | WHO Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean concludes visit to Somalia | News | Media centre