Somalia
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is running a range of essential medical services in Somalia to assist people affected by conflict and climate shocks.
Our activities in 2025 —
emergency room admissions
individual mental health consultations
people treated for intentional physical violence
surgical interventions
pediatric consultations
cases of malnutrition treated
Reproductive health consultations
assisted deliveries
vaccines administered
MSF first worked in Somalia in 1979 and was present in the country with few interruptions between 1991 and 2013.
In August 2013, MSF announced the closure of all its projects in Somalia following an accumulation of security incidents — a total of 16 MSF staff were killed since 1991, two staff were kidnapped from Dadaab refugee camp and held for 21 months, and two MSF staff were murdered in Mogadishu.
MSF returned to Somalia in 2017 after a four-year absence.
Today, two operational centres run medical activities in three locations: Baidoa (Bay Region, Southwest State), Galkayo North (Puntland State), and Galkayo South (Galmudug State), with a new project recently opened in Guriel (Galmudug State) and an operational centre has just approved a new project in Mogadishu to start in mid 2026.
In 2025, the MSF team was made up of 144 staff members, working alongside 669 staff from the Ministry of Health. MSF brought approximately 328 tons of medical aid into Somalia in 2025. MSF's 2025 budget for Somalia was € 18.9 million. MSF operates in Somalia predominantly through the Ministry of Health using MoH seconded staff.
Emergency Response
In 2025, MSF teams in Somalia responded to repeated emergencies driven by drought, displacement, and the reduction of humanitarian services.
In Baidoa and Mudug, hospitals and mobile teams treated sharp increases in acute malnutrition and managed outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases, including measles, diphtheria, and acute watery diarrhoea. Between January and June 2025, MSF treated 20,239 cases of acute watery diarrhea/suspected cholera in Baidoa and Mudug.
MSF treated 1338 measles cases representing nearly 20% of all reported cases in the country. MSF had 2,769 ITFC admissions and 9,808 ATFC admissions between January and June 2025. The mission's emergency preparedness planning covers responses to disease outbreaks, displacement, war wounded, and nutrition crises.