On 16 March, Somali president’s office released a press release with a single photo showing Mr. Farmajo being injected with the first dose of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine which only arrived the country on 8 March.

In the press release, the Villa Somalia said: The President of the Federal Republic of Somalia, H.E Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo, who received the COVID-19 vaccine, has reaffirmed our strong commitment to the people and the government to save the health and life of our country.

Also, the press release was re-distributed by the Ministry of Information and the state-owned SNTV.

So What is true?

The truth is that president Farmajo did not get the jab. According to three sources within the Ministry of Health of the Federal Government of Somalia with a knowledge of the 16 March activity that took place in the Villa Somalia and a member of the Covid-19 taskforce, the president was not injected with the vaccine. Instead he was injected with "an empty syringe”.

"The Ministry of Health was assure to show the public about the reliability of the COVAX Vaccine that has arrived in the country.The president was not willing to take it so he just pretended to have the jab. In reality that was an empty needle,” one health worker with a knowledge of the matter told Horn Facts anonymously due to the sensitivity of the matter.

"It can be little bit harder to tell if there is any medicine inside the syringe. Nobody knows. Then they took the photos. The Ministry of Health wanted to show this to the public so they can trust the vaccine,” a second health worker said.

One official who is member of the Covid-19 taskforce said the president was preferring having his dose of the vaccine in Turkey which he trusted more than the ‘local jab’.

"The concerns were two. First, he thought that he could not trust the local health workers and second is existing cold chain supply systems to keep the vaccines safe are not adequate in Somalia,” the official noted.

However, the Health Minister Dr. Fawsiya Abikar Nur said the 300,000 doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine has been validated by WHO for emergency use and is licensed to the Serum Institute of India. It only requires standard refrigeration which makes it easier to transport and store.

The truth now is that Farmajo did not receive Covid-19 vaccine.

Credit: Hornfacts.com