In 2022, Somali communities in the Horn of Africa experienced an unrelenting drought, the worst in 40 years, with more than 1.3 million people displaced by the end of the year, amid a conflict that has been going on for decades and recurrent disease outbreaks.  

In Baidoa city in Southwest state, we ran 20 mobile nutrition clinics and 32 nutrition monitoring sites and referred severely malnourished children to the inpatient therapeutic feeding centre in Bay regional hospital.  

Malnutrition in children was exacerbated by measles, an extremely infectious disease that can be fatal. Measles rates increased dramatically in the overcrowded camps and informal settlements in towns and cities where people had fled from violence, or after they had run out of food and water in their villages. We treated children with measles in MSF-supported health facilities in Baidoa, Jubaland, Hargeisa and Las Anod. 

In July, we partnered with Somaliland’s Ministry of Health Development to conduct a mass measles vaccination campaign, including for people in displacement camps and the surrounding communities. 

In April, we responded to a cholera outbreak in Baidoa city, setting up 15 oral rehydration points and a cholera treatment centre. To prevent the disease spreading, we improved access to clean water by trucking it in, drilling boreholes and installing chlorine dispensers.  

Our teams worked in hospitals across Somalia, focusing on maternal, paediatric and emergency care, nutrition support, and the diagnosis and treatment of tuberculosis (TB) and multidrug-resistant TB, as well as mental health care and health promotion. We also ran mobile clinics in remote areas, delivering care to people in displacement camps and the surrounding communities.  

In partnership with a local medical organisation, we ran five ‘eye camps’ in several locations, conducting screening and surgical interventions for common eye conditions that cause blindness if left untreated, and distributing medical eye-glasses.