By Asha Elmi - Reporter
MOGADISHU, 08 October 2026 Somalia has established a six-ministry committee to coordinate preparations against Ebola after the Cabinet reviewed measures to prevent the disease from reaching the country.
The committee will be chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Jibril Haji Abdi and will include Health and Human Services Minister Ali Haji Adan, Internal Security Minister Abdullahi Sheikh Ismail (Fartaag), Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Minister Abdisalam Abdi Ali, Transport and Civil Aviation Minister Mohamed Farah Nuh, Information, Culture and Tourism Minister Abdifitah Kasim, and Livestock, Forestry and Range Minister Hassan Hussein Mohamed (Elaay).
The decision came after the Ministry of Health and Social Care presented a report to the Cabinet on the Ebola situation and measures to prevent the disease from entering Somalia.
The move follows Kenya’s confirmation on Oct. 6 of its first imported case of Bundibugyo Ebola in a Kenyan citizen who had been living in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The patient travelled by road to Kampala, Uganda, before flying to Nairobi, where he was taken to hospital and later died.
Kenyan health authorities said on Oct. 7 that they had identified 57 contacts linked to the patient, with 10 people placed under quarantine while efforts to trace the remaining contacts continued.
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The World Health Organization said Kenya was the fourth country to confirm a case linked to the ongoing Bundibugyo Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Uganda, through which the Kenyan patient travelled, ended its latest Bundibugyo outbreak in August.
The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo has become the country’s largest and deadliest, with more than 8,000 confirmed cases and over 4,000 deaths, according to government data reported by Reuters.
Somalia’s Cabinet also discussed security, elections, trade and other national issues during its weekly meeting, which was chaired by Prime Minister Hamza Abdi Barre.
The government said the new committee would strengthen coordination among relevant ministries and support Somalia’s ability to detect, prevent and respond to Ebola should the disease reach the country.