MOGADISHU, Sept. 23– Somalia’s Ministry of Health and Human Services and the National Institute of Health, with technical support from the World Health Organization (WHO), have concluded a three-day national simulation exercise in Mogadishu to evaluate the country’s readiness to detect, verify, report, and respond to potential Ebola alerts or imported cases.
“Simulation exercises offer a safe, practical environment to test plans, procedures and coordination systems before they are needed in a real emergency,” Ahmed Dahir, acting health emergency lead at WHO Somalia, said in a statement issued on Sunday. Health authorities confirmed that Somalia has no recorded cases of the disease. A total of 70 representatives from the Ministry of Health and Human Services, the National Institute of Health, federal member states, and partner organizations participated in the exercise. Through tabletop and functional sessions, participants tested federal-state coordination, point-of-entry protocols, referral pathways, information sharing, risk communication, and response planning, the WHO said. The exercise comes as the Democratic Republic of the Congo continues to combat a major Ebola outbreak caused by the Bundibugyo virus.
The WHO said Somalia’s health preparedness faces complex challenges, including ongoing conflict, climate shocks, displacement, funding constraints, and concurrent outbreaks of measles, diphtheria, and circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2. The simulation identified operational gaps in reporting lines, notification and referral pathways, point-of-entry procedures, public communication governance, and task ownership. To address these vulnerabilities, each finding was cataloged, assigned, and tracked through a dedicated improvement action plan.”A well-documented gap is a valuable result of this exercise because it gives us a concrete opportunity to strengthen readiness before a real event,” said Hassan Ahmed, director of the Emergency Department at Somalia’s Ministry of Health and Human Services.
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