Resisting Two Pandemics in Somalia

 

2020, A year like no other

It has been a while since I wrote a blog, perhaps my blogging passion shrieked or I got myself caught up in piles and piles of work or maybe Covid-19 sabotaged my passion for writing blogs just like it shut down the whole world. But from time to time, my eagerness to tell a story rejuvenate and push me to write something because I feel healed and relieved whenever I write a story.  For its eventfulness, 2020 was a year like no other, a year full of wonders, astonishment and apocalyptic tales. It was a year we came to know an unknown infectious and contagious disease called "coronavirus," a year many of us first heard a city called Wuhan in China and its seafood market which many consider as the origin of this deadly virus.

 

Then we learned new terminologies such as ‘lockdown, quarantine and social distancing’ among many other terms. All these terms mismatched the Somali culture and our lifestyle. For instance, it is a norm for intergenerational groups (extended families) to live in overcrowded households in Somalia, making the whole concept of social distance nearly impossible for many Somalis. It is worth mentioning that this attachment and closeness of extended families has been the primary source of resilience and support for Somali families at home and abroad. In fact, it is what helped us survive through years and years of harrowing circumstances resulted from the civil war until it became incompatible with this dreadful and deadly disease.

 

Shutting down the whole planet

Apart from the catastrophic loss of human lives which we are still counting until today, the pandemic has literary paused the whole world. By March 2020, most governments worldwide closed their borders, imposed partial or complete lockdown restrictions on their citizens, and flights cancelled, resulting in severe economic crises in the entire aviation industry.  Schools, universities and other academic institutions closed and shifted from physical classes to virtual platforms. This was far from reality for the unprivileged and poor communities who were not financially able to access the internet or digital devices.   As for the jobs, many fortunate employees managed to work remotely from their homes while  million others lost their jobs due to the collapse of most businesses and institutions. Events, festivals and large gathering platforms have been cancelled too. We may have certainly been through worse years in our history, but most of us alive today on this planet have not seen anything on this scale.

 

How miraculously Africa survived from worst prediction

The pandemic tested and exposed the weakness of our health system in Africa. For many parts of the world, including developed countries their goal was 'flattening the curve,' but for many of us (under developed countries) it was just bracing for the biggest impact; waiting for the apocalypse to happen. When the pandemic was already wreaking havoc in European and Asian nations, the United Nations warned that even with putting all preventive measures (social distancing and hand sanitizing) in place, the African continent would be the hardest hit, predicting that more than 330,000 would die from the virus. Miraculously or not, by the end of 2020, Africa was doing much better than the rest of the world in terms of fatalities from the virus, in fact much lower than all other continents. Several factors including continent’s youthful population, exposure to other existing virus such as those caused by seasonal flues and the fact that the virus hit the continent later than the rest of the world have been cited by scientists. As for Somalia, the number of confirmed cases today stands at 14,632 while 767 cases were documented as the total fatalities according to official figures from the Ministry of health.

 

Pandemic over pandemic in Somalia

In the first quarter of 2021, Somalia faced the second wave of the virus with a high transmission rate and more death rates than the first. Somalia's health ministry announced that the second wave hit the country due to the travelers returning home and large gatherings. But Somalia was facing other pandemics too including droughts, security tension, delayed election, but the most critical pandemic was  the political impasse that actually resulted violent clashes in April 2021. Somalia’s presidential elections were scheduled to take on 8^th February 2021, but this plan failed due to disagreement between the country’s top political leaders including president Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo who tried to extend his term for two years, a move which was widely opposed and condemned by federal state leaders and opposition groups.

Things went from bad to worse when violent clashes between government forces and armed protestors broke out in Mogadishu, forcing at least 100 thousand civilians to flee from their homes. This was pandemic over another pandemic for residents of Mogadishu. To make it Nobody thought that Somalia's hard-earned little peace would be broken in an overnight clash right in the heart of the capital city.

 

Ending with a positive note

Let me end this blog with a positive note, COVID19 cases have dropped worldwide and in our continent even though some countries are still struggling with different variants such as India, vaccine rollout has started in most countries around the world. Somalia has received its first vaccine package in March 2021 under the world COVAX alliance scheme. And as of today, Somalia's political leaders reached a landmark agreement ending the prolonged political deadlock, thus paving the way for parliamentary and presidential elections within two months. We might still be dealing with the aftermath of the dreadful 25 April violent clashes in Mogadishu but the healing process started already.

 

With that, I wish you healthy life and a safer world.