SOMALIA: Juggling peacekeeping and medical care

The heavily guarded makeshift clinic, located near the AU base in southern Mogadishu, is crowded with both wounded soldiers and civilians.

"I came to seek treatment; a landmine exploded on our vehicle yesterday," a female Somali soldier, who only gave her name as Leyla, said. "Four of my wounded colleagues are also admitted here," she added, as she waited for drugs to treat the wounds to her face.

Other bandaged Somali patients and government soldiers lay side by side with Ugandan peacekeepers on small beds. A team of doctors and nurses attended to dozens of other outpatients.

"We are overwhelmed by the crowd; our hands are already full," a male Ugandan nurse told IRIN. "There is a big problem in this country."

On 16 August, nearly a thousand patients, mostly women and children, were camped outside the base after word spread that the peacekeepers had received free drugs from the Islamic relief agency.

"Everybody thinks they can get help," said Major Paddy Ankunda, the AU spokesman in Somalia.

Pointing at dozens of men, women and children trying to get into a military ambulance that transports patients to the clinic, he added: "We cannot sustain these people alone. We need other partners to come on board, especially humanitarian agencies."

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