Financial troubles, staffing shortages and high demand threaten to halt the only free private ambulance service in Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu.
“We have been providing this voluntary service for 12 years with the help of friends and other generous individuals in private business, but now the responsibility is greater than our power,” said Abdulkadir Abdirahman Adam, a dentist who founded Aamin Ambulance. He cited a staffing shortage and an inability to cover costs.
At its peak, the service had 53 workers. Now, “only 20 people with 16 vehicles [are] providing 24/7 services to a growing city and huge population,” Adam said, estimating the metropolitan area at more than 2 million people.
Adam, who also teaches at a Mogadishu university, said the service has been running on donations from individuals, such as “students who provided us $1 a month. That is not enough to cover the needs of this city and its residents.”