Somaliland

Somaliland declared independence from Somalia in 1991 following years of violence at the hands of dictator Said Barre. Since 1991, the Republic of Somaliland has been governed by democratically-elected governments and today has its own civilian police force, army and currency. Years of stability have recently been disrupted by conflict between Somaliland security forces and armed groups from Somalia’s city of Las Anod.

In 1998, pioneering political and global health leader, Edna Adan Ismail, built medical facilities in Somaliland’s capital of Hargeisa which became a thriving maternity hospital. Today, the Edna Adan Hospital treats obstetric, paediatric and surgical cases from across the Horn of Africa.

Despite this, Somaliland faces considerable health challenges. Only 19% of the population have timely access to essential surgery and the healthcare system does not meet any of the target goals for preparedness, delivery or impact set out by the Lancet Commission on Global Surgery.

Frontline surgical courses

To strengthen the trauma skills of Somaliland’s doctors, we delivered a Hostile Environment Surgical Training (HEST) course at Edna Adan Hospital in Hargeisa in 2021. 34 doctors were upskilled, a third of which were women. For the first time, we trained surgical nurses and helped them implement a new surgical checklist to improve the hygiene of operating theatres.

In 2022, we also invited a select of the hospital’s surgeons to our Train the Trainers course in London, developing their practical and teaching skills further. We’ll soon be back in Somaliland, further strengthening the territory’s medical workforce.

“The trauma training programme is very helpful for us. We practiced a lot of tricks and procedures that will help our patients survive. I use a new stitch in my surgeries that I learned in training.”
Dr Shukri Dahir, Hargeisa

Somaliland stories