Saturday 19 July 2025 {HMC} Four newly opened, fully staffed health centres in parts of Jubbaland state of Somalia are providing critical health care to communities in remote areas where they previously struggled to access treatment.

The centres in Jana-Abdalle, Bahdadhe, and Raskamboni in Lower Juba and Dollow in Gedo region are providing free outpatient services, vaccinations, maternal care, and general treatment to communities in these districts, as well as in other parts of the regions through mobile clinics.

A mobile clinic run to Badhadhe enabled Aisha Farah Muse, 60, to get back to herding her livestock after being off work due to a leg injury.

“It turns out it wasn’t a broken bone but a detached muscle. My knee moved out of place, shifting towards the ankle. The doctors fixed my leg, put the knee back in place, and applied a cast and bandage,” she said.

Aisha couldn’t afford to go to Kismayo for medical attention. She has 10 children to feed and since drought killed their 300 cows and 200 goats three years ago, she has struggled desperately to recover her livelihood.

“We have no money, we don’t have any income to tell you about now. We people are pastoralists, and livestock has no market. If we don’t find anything, we just sleep hungry at night,” she stated.

Maryan Abdi Budul, 45, took her children to the health centre opened in April in Jana Abdalle for free medical services including treatment and vaccinations for her five children.

Maryan was treated for malaria and a bladder infection. Her children got their first measles, polio and diphtheria vaccinations.

After a month of medication, she said she felt much better.

“I was told I had malaria and an infection. I was given a series of 10 injections and I took all the medicine prescribed,” she said. “I couldn’t control my urine and it was terrible losing that control.”

Being able to access free treatment and vaccines was important for Maryan. Travelling the 60 kilometres to Kismayo would have cost at least $100.

“We faced great difficulties getting treatment. You have to be hosted in a hotel or finding people who know you, relatives or your own children, to help you. Only after that can you go to a doctor. We are very relieved to have this centre,” she told Radio Ergo.

Maryan struggles with food insecurity, as her five-hectare farm has remained uncultivated since 2023 following severe flooding. She owes $400 to shops where a relative guarantees her credit as traders distrust her due to her lack of income.

The Jubbaland health ministry conducted needs assessments early last year, identifying areas like Jana Abdalle as suffering from poor roads and shortage or absence of medical facilities and resources.

The new five-room centre in Jana Abdalle employs nine staff including doctors and nurses.

The programme has been implemented by Jubbaland Ministry of Health, Vision Corps Initiative (VCI) and Core Group Partners Project, with funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

VCI officer Mohamed Ahmed Nur said the health centres operated 24 hours a day with trained nurses. They provided maternal health services, outpatient services, and administered all vaccinations on the ministry’s schedule.

Saturday 19 July 2025 {HMC} Syria and Israel have agreed to a ceasefire, US ambassador to Turkiye, Tom Barrack, has announced, drawing an uneasy truce between the neighbours after days of air strikes and sectarian bloodshed in Syria’s southwestern Suwayda region.

Barrack said in a post on X early on Saturday that the ceasefire between Syria and Israel was “supported” by Washington and “embraced” by Turkiye, Jordan and Syria’s neighbours.

In his post announcing the ceasefire, Barrack said the US called “upon Druze, Bedouins, and Sunnis to put down their weapons and together with other minorities build a new and united Syrian identity in peace and prosperity with its neighbors “.

There has been no comment yet from Syrian or Israeli officials.

An Israeli official, who declined to be named, told reporters on Friday that in light of the “ongoing instability in southwest Syria”, Israel had agreed to allow the “limited entry of the [Syrian] internal security forces into Suwayda district for the next 48 hours”.

On Wednesday, Israel launched heavy air strikes targeting Syria’s Ministry of Defence in the heart of Damascus, and also hit Syrian government forces in the country’s Suwayda region.

Israel claims it has launched attacks to protect Syria’s Druze minority in Suwayda, where ethnically charged clashes between Druze and Bedouin armed groups and government forces have reportedly left hundreds dead.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has described the Druze, who number about one million in Syria – mostly concentrated in Suwayda – and 150,000 in Israel, as “brothers”.

A ceasefire agreement mediated by the US, Turkiye and Arab countries was reached between Druze leaders and the Syrian government on Wednesday. Israel, however, launched air strikes on Syria the same day, killing at least three people and wounding 34 others.

Following the Israeli attacks, Syrian interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa said in a televised speech early on Thursday that protecting the country’s Druze citizens and their rights was a priority, and though Syria would prefer to avoid a conflict with Israel, it was not afraid of war.

Al-Sharaa added that Syria would overcome attempts by Israel to tear the country apart through its aggression.

Heavy fighting again flared up between the Druze and Bedouin tribes in Suwayda on Friday, and Damascus has redeployed a dedicated force to restore calm in the Druze-majority governorate.

Source: Al Jazeera and news agencies