Fawziya Abikar Nur () is the Somalian Federal Minister for Health and Social Care since March 2017. She is trained in law and public health and previously worked for the World Health Organization. She was in the post during the outbreak of the

COVID-19 pandemic in Somalia The COVID-19 pandemic was confirmed to have reached Somalia on 16 March 2020 when the first case was confirmed in Mogadishu. The Somali Prime Minister, Hassan Ali Khaire announced that the government has set aside five million dollars to deal w ...

and the arrival of the first vaccines.

Life

She studied law at the Somali National University and in February 1985 she graduated. She then went to Italy where she completed a two-year fellowship in

public law Public law is the part of law that governs relations between legal persons and a government, between different institutions within a state, between different branches of governments, as well as relationships between persons that are of direct ...

at the University of Bologna. She stayed in Italy and studied further at the Istituto Superiore di Sanità in Rome where she gained a master's degree in Health Services Management before she completed a doctorate at the Sapienza University of Rome in public health. She worked at Somali National University as an assistant lecturer and later on poverty reduction training programmes at Sapienza and the Istituto Superiore di Sanità. From 2012 to 2016, she worked as a consultant for the World Health Organization in Somalia. On 21 March 2017 she became the Somalian Federal Minister for Health and Social Care and joined Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khaire's new cabinet. The Ministry of Health is based in Mogadishu. In 2018 she spoke of her country's success in combating

cholera Cholera is an infection of the small intestine by some strains of the bacterium ''Vibrio cholerae''. Symptoms may range from none, to mild, to severe. The classic symptom is large amounts of watery diarrhea that lasts a few days. Vomiting and ...

and polio. In April 2020, the first COVID-19 pandemic deaths in Somalia were recorded. Nur announced the death of the first victim who was a 58-year-old man. The second victim was Khalif Mumin Tohow who was a Minister of Justice for the Somalian State of Hirshabelle. He had just returned from a visit to the United Kingdom. On 8 April 2021, the official death toll from COVID-19 pandemic was 576. On 11 April 2021, the minister received the first coronavirus vaccines from China. The 200,000 doses of the Sinopharm BIBP vaccine were handed over by Chinese ambassador Qin Jian. Ten days later, Somalia received 300,000 doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine from the COVAX initiative; Nur said that the vaccine would be sent to every region of Somalia and priority would be given to health care workers during the mass vaccination programme. In April she also announced that the World Health Organization would be leading improvements in mental health provision. The project is targeting young Somalians who have been affected by conflict. There is little provision for mental health in a country where two-thirds of the population are below thirty years old and many have had to live with violence.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nur, Fawziya Abikar Living people Government ministers of Somalia Health ministers of Somalia Women government ministers of Somalia 21st-century Somalian women politicians 21st-century Somalian politicians Somali National University alumni University of Bologna alumni Year of birth missing (living people) Sapienza University of Rome alumni