Somalia: Expanding activities despite significant obstacles

A Médecins Sans Frontières mobile team carries out measles vaccination, screens for malnutrition and provides care to the sick children in internally displaced persons camps of Hodan District, Southern Mogadishu, Somalia. © Feisal Omar

For the past few weeks Médecins Sans Frontières teams in Somalia have been trying to expand their operations despite ongoing violence in the capital and other restrictions. As the number of malnourished children continues to rise, it is clear that more assistance is necessary for the already vulnerable Somali population, which has had virtually no access to healthcare for the past two decades.

To date, a total of 8,135 children are enrolled in Médecins Sans Frontières nutritional programs in Somalia; 561 of them are severely malnourished and require hospitalisation and intensive care. Médecins Sans Frontières is aiming to further reduce mortality among malnourished children by reaching out to communities to identify patients in need of assistance, to stabilise them, and to provide therapeutic food to those who need it.  Those who require around-the-clock intensive care will be referred to Inpatient Therapeutic Feeding Centres (ITFC). 

In the capital, Mogadishu, the organisation has opened a 60-bed ITFC in which 50 severely malnourished children are currently hospitalised. Simultaneously, mobile teams have been reaching out to neglected populations currently taking shelter in camps in and around the city.

Since August 8, medical teams have vaccinated more than 11,000 children against measles to reduce the risk of epidemic. Médecins Sans Frontières is also closely monitoring the evolution of a cholera outbreak in the city and in the camps and has just opened a 50-bed Cholera Treatment Centre in central Mogadishu.

In Southern and central Somalia, Médecins Sans Frontières had, as of August 18, hospitalised 319 severely malnourished children in intensive treatment centres in Marere, Dinsor, Beletweyne, Afgoye, Jowhar and Guriel. Mobile teams have reached out to displaced populations and provided nutritional support around Marere and Guriel as well.

Despite these efforts, the organisation is still far from having a good picture of the overall nutritional situation in this part of the country and Médecins Sans Frontières teams are still negotiating to gain more access.

In Northern Somalia, as of August 18, 192 children had been admitted to Médecins Sans Frontières Therapeutic Centres in north and south of Galcayo. According to Duncan Mclean, program manager for Médecins Sans Frontières operations in Somalia, “although there are no doubts that the situation is critical, we still have a very patchy view, limited to the areas of our activities.”

Médecins Sans Frontières, which has been one of the largest healthcare providers in Somalia for the last two decades now runs 13 projects in 8 regions. Despite difficulties, Médecins Sans Frontières remains one of the only few organisations running medical facilities in some communities in South and Central Somalia.

Médecins Sans Frontières has worked continuously in Somalia since 1991 and currently provides free medical care in eight regions. Over 1,400 Somali staff, supported by approximately 100 staff in Nairobi, provide free primary healthcare, surgery, treatment for malnutrition, as well as support to displaced people through health care, water supply and relief items distributions in nine locations in south and central Somalia. Médecins Sans Frontières is also providing medical care to Somali refugees in Kenya (Dagahaley and Ifo camps) and Ethiopia (Liben).