President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan inaugurated the Somalia-Turkey Training and Research Hospital with President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud of Somalia.
Following the opening ceremony, President Erdoğan and First Lady Emine Erdoğan, who made observations at the hospital, visited patients, attended to the graduation ceremony of the Vocational School of Nursing and Health and took pictures with doctors and aid workers.
A protocol stipulating that the hospital would be operated jointly was signed between Turkey and Somalia during the opening ceremony of the 200-bed Somalia-Turkey Training and Research Hospital, built in Mogadishu by TIKA.
According to the protocol, the Turkish Ministry of Health would provide specialized personnel and financial support for the next five years. Patients have been treated at the hospital since last September, surgical operations and inpatient treatment began in November. The hospital will be operated jointly for the next 5 years, after which it will be handed over to Somalia free of charge. During this 5-year process, patients, who were previously not treated due to the lack of proper medical facilities, will be treated in the region, an operating model for a tertiary modern hospital will be developed, sustainable, safe, high-quality medical care will be offered to the Somali people and qualified man power will be provided to the healthcare system.
Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmuş, Minister of Foreign Affairs Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu and Minister of Health Mehmet Müezzinoğlu also attended to the opening ceremony.