MOGADISHU: To save the life of his badly malnourished 3-year-old son, farmer Yusuf Bulle had to travel from a remote area of southern Somalia to the capital, Mogadishu, where a rare health unit presented the only hope.
After 15 days at Banadir Hospital, the child was deemed out of danger.
“Where I come from, there is no hospital,” Bulle said. “That’s why I am here.”
One of the world’s poorest countries faces a crisis of health care exacerbated by the Trump administration’s dismantling of the US Agency for International Development this year. The loss of USAID funding has disheartened many Somalis who believe they can’t depend on their own government, which focuses mostly on defeating the Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Shabab.
Somalia’s deputy health minister, Mohamed Hassan Bulaale, told The Associated Press that the US cuts led to over 6,000 health workers losing their jobs while up to 2,000 health facilities were affected — a massive hit in a country that the Center for Global Development this year said was among the world’s most likely to suffer as donors draw back.
