Somalia sends 20 doctors to Italy to help in coronavirus fight

A team of 20 doctors have travelled from Somalia to Italy to take part in the fight against Covid-19 outbreak, which has devastated the country, Khartoum said on Saturday.

The doctors are a group of volunteers from the Somali National University, government spokesman Ismail Mukhtar Omar said.

"The 20 doctors have already been registered in Italy and are expected to team up with some doctors from across the world to help Italy to contain the novel coronavirus," Omar said.

Omar added that the team's mission to Italy came in response to appeals from Rome for international assistance. Europe is now the continent with the highest recorded death toll from Covid-19, with Italy alone reporting 10,779 fatalities from the illness.

Read also: IMF gives $5bn to Somalia in huge debt assistance as country reforms economy

Somalia reported its first case of the coronavirus on 16 March, and has had recorded a total of three so far.

The Horn of Africa nation has banned international and domestic flights in an attempt to contain the spread of the virus.

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