Explosion in Mogadishu injures two SOS Hospital doctors

A blast at a graduation ceremony in the Somali capital Mogadishu has injured many people including two doctors who work at the SOS Hospital in the city.  Dr Abdullahi Hussein, the senior medical officer at the SOS Hospital and his colleague Dr Tahlil Abdi, were attending a graduation ceremony for medical students of Banadir University. They were among the invited guests at the ceremony, who also included government ministers and other dignitaries.  According to the BBC the huge explosion occurred in a meeting hall of the hotel which held several hundred people.  It is reported that at least two government ministers died in the blast including the minister of health.

An arrangement between Banadir University and SOS Children’s Villages allows medical students from the University to gain practical experience at the SOS Hospital.  For that reason, several SOS medical staff were in attendance at the graduation ceremony. Dr Abdullahi is a paediatrician who trained in Mogadishu and first worked at the SOS Hospital in 1991.  In 1995 he went to Italy for further training before taking up a post in the UK. He returned to Mogadishu to work for SOS Children’s Villages in 2005 and has been instrumental in keeping the hospital running while setting up a satellite facility in Afgoye, 30 km from the capital. Both Dr Abdullahi and Dr Tahlil are being treated in hospital.  A third doctor from Hargeisa, who was an intern at the hospital, is still missing.

According to the BBC, five government ministers were in the hotel and confirmed that three of them had been killed, including Health Minister Qamar Aden Ali, Education Minister Ahmed Abdulahi Waayeel and Higher Education Minister Ibrahim Hassan Addow. Two journalists were also reported to be among the dead. The Shamo hotel is often used by the few foreigners. It is in one of the small parts of the city controlled by the government, just 1km from a base of the African Union peacekeeping force in Somalia.

The SOS Children's Village opened in Mogadishu in 1985 and the hospital, used for maternity, paediatric and other humanitarian services, has been in operation since 1989. Throughout the 1991 fighting and the civil war, the hospital remained untouched by shelling. In 2003 a nursing school was opened at the hospital and the first intake of students has since graduated.

We will update you as soon as we know more.