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Somalia healthcare remains on life support

Despite a tense peace, hospitals remain in critical condition, needing injections of investment to begin their recovery.

Following the liberation of Kismayo by African Union forces and Somali troops, limited access to the city has returned.
By Phil Moore
Published On 23 Mar 201323 Mar 2013
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Dr Omar Saleh first came to Kismayo General Hospital in 2007, after Ethiopian forces had stepped in to help the Somali interim government of the time.

But just a year later, Dr Saleh, the World Health Organisation’s emergency co-ordinator for Somalia, found himself unable to get to the hospital, as the city fell under the control of the notorious al-Shabaab armed group.

When a coalition of Kenyan troops and Somali forces – the Somali National Army allied with the Ras Kamboni armed group – ousted al-Shabaab in September 2012, hopes for humanitarian access were raised.

Dr Saleh returned to Kismayo in October 2012, his first visit since the city’s days under al-Shabaab’s harsh rule. He found the hospital, built in 1931 under Italian colonialism, in a sorry state. Four years without adequate maintenance and supplies had taken its toll.

The security situation in the city, held together by a precarious armed peace, is not sufficient for most humanitarian agencies to operate. Many organisations have visited the hospital and have said that they would help, but so far there have been few promises fulfilled, one of the staff told Al Jazeera.

The World Health Organisation is supplying drugs to the hospital, and training teams of medical staff, but many of the rooms here are inaccessible, as crumbling walls and ceilings threaten to collapse at any moment.

The city, on the Indian Ocean around 500km south of the capital, Mogadishu, is a major source of revunue thanks to its shipping port.
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Somali troops and Kenyan forces, operating under the umbrella of the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), maintain an armed peace.
An assortment of militia allied to the government effectively control the city, providing security to visitors.
Much of the hospital has fallen into a state of disrepair, following years of neglect.
Despite the peace, many civilians are admitted to the hospital with conflict-related injuries, with frequent grenade attacks and outbreaks of gunfire.
The hospital is equipped with some functioning equipment, but has a very limited number of qualified medical staff.
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With the security situation in the city still precarious, only limited aid and support can reach the hospital. This man, whose throat was injured by shrapnel, awaits further treatment amid the most basic of amenities.
A surgical table sits in a room of crumbling plaster, pockmarked by bullet holes.
Nine-month-old Sumayah Ahmed lies on a mattress in the hosptial, after a bullet hit her stomach. Medics here managed to save her life.
Dr Omar Saleh, Emergency Coordinator for the World Health Organisation, examines a patient on a visit to the hospital.
An armed Somali allied with the national government stands guard on the outskirts of the city.


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