Mental health in Somalia and Somaliland: services, numbers and chaining

In short

Somalia and Somaliland have very few trained mental health workers. WHO's Mental Health Atlas 2020 counted about 82 mental health professionals in Somalia, and only four were psychiatrists (UN in Somalia, 24 August 2022, citing WHO Mental Health Atlas 2020). In 2015 Somaliland had two psychiatrists for about 3.5 million people (Human Rights Watch, 25 October 2015).

How common is mental illness?

No national survey has measured it. In 2011 Al Jazeera reported an estimate that one-third of Somalia's then eight million people had some form of mental illness (Al Jazeera, Mohammed Adow, 7 October 2011). On World Mental Health Day 2025, Dr Habeeb put the number at about 345,000 people with mental health disorders (SONNA, 30 November 2025).

Somaliland keeps no official data on how common mental illness is (Human Rights Watch, 2015). The research that exists links high rates to war violence and trauma, few health services and wide khat use (same source).

Chaining

A WHO study found that chaining patients was widespread in Somalia and was "socially and medically accepted" (Al Jazeera, 2011). Some patients had been chained for decades (same source).

Human Rights Watch's 81-page report "Chained Like Prisoners" (25 October 2015) covered Hargeisa, Berbera and Gabiley (HRW). Researchers interviewed more than 115 people, including 47 who had been placed in institutions. Its main findings:

• Most people were admitted against their will, usually by relatives. Some were held up to five years with no way to challenge it.
• Chaining was common in private centres, on admission and as punishment. It was used less at the Berbera General Hospital ward.
• The Hargeisa Group Hospital mental health ward was the only centre found to be chain-free.
• Some residents came from the diaspora.

Who provides care

Habeeb centres (Mogadishu). Dr Abdirahman Ali Awale, known as Dr Habeeb, opened his first clinic in Mogadishu in 2005 (Al Jazeera, 2011). Al Jazeera describes him as a psychiatric nurse by training. Habeeb Mental Health and Rehabilitation dates its start to 24 November 2005 and in 2025 ran four main centres in and around Mogadishu with about 600 residents (SONNA, 2025). On 16 July 2025, 54 people finished a three-month mental health diploma it ran with the health ministry (same source).

Private ilaaj centres (Somaliland). Hargeisa has about 20 private mental health centres, called ilaaj, often unlicensed; the largest held more than 400 patients (King's Global Health Partnerships, 10 October 2022).

Public wards (Somaliland). Until recently there were five public mental health units: Berbera, Borama, Gabiley, Hargeisa and Burao (same source).

Plans and policy

Federal Somalia. The federal government worked with WHO on a mental health strategy for 2019 to 2022 with the ministry then finalising a mental health policy (UN in Somalia, 24 August 2022).

Somaliland. The Ministry of Health Development set up a Department for Mental Health in 2021 and published its first national mental health strategic plan in 2022 (King's Global Health Partnerships, 2022). Under it:

• About 450 health workers were trained in mhGAP, WHO's guide for treating mental illness in primary care.
• Two new regional mental hospitals opened in Sool and Sanaag, each with 25 male and 15 female beds.
• A small tax on khat, introduced in 2022, paid for the two hospitals.

Read more

• Health in Somalia: the key numbers
• Khat in Somalia
• Caring for Somali patients