Fawziya Abikar Nur

Fawziya Abikar Nur is the Somali Federal Minister for Health and Social Care since March 2017. She is trained in law and public health and previously worked for the World Health Organization. She was in the post during the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in Somalia and the arrival of the first vaccines.

Life She studied law at the Somali National University and in February 1985 she graduated. She then went to Italy where she completed a two-year fellowship in public law at the University of Bologna. She stayed in Italy and studied further at the Istituto Superiore di Sanità in Rome where she gained a master's degree in Health Services Management before she completed a doctorate at the Sapienza University of Rome in public health.

On 21 March 2017 she became the Somalian Federal Minister for Health and Social Care and joined Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khaire's new cabinet. The Ministry of Health is based in Mogadishu.

In 2018 she spoke of her country's success in combating cholera and polio.

In April 2020, the first COVID-19 pandemic deaths in Somalia were recorded. Nur announced the death of the first victim who was a 58-year-old man. The second victim was Khalif Mumin Tohow who was a Minister of Justice for the Somalian State of Hirshabelle.

On 8 April 2021, the official death toll from COVID-19 pandemic was 576. On 11 April 2021, the minister received the first coronavirus vaccines from China.

In April she also announced that the World Health Organization would be leading improvements in mental health provision. The project is targeting young Somalians who have been affected by conflict. There is little provision for mental health in a country where two-thirds of the population are below thirty years old and many have had to live with violence.