admin | February 29, 2016
One and a half million Somalis have lost access to healthcare over the last two years. Relief agencies say that about 10 hospitals have closed or cut back their services due to a shortage of aid.
The United Nations says donor funding for healthcare in Somalia has fallen by two-thirds in recent years.
Many health facilities have been damaged or looted during the ongoing conflicts in the country, and medical personnel and drugs are in short supply. Abdulrahman Sharif is the director of the Somalia NGO Consortium. He says health facilities are almost entirely dependent on donor funding.
The medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres pulled out of Somalia in 2013 because of attacks which had resulted in the killing or abduction of more than a dozen of its staff since 1991. MSF had been one of the main health service providers, with 1,500 staff managing more than 20 facilities.
Mr. Sharif says other agencies have struggled to fill the gap.
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