Somalilandsun – Kenya-headquartered AMREF Flying Doctors has opened a station and positioned a medevac aircraft with medical crew in Mogadishu, Somalia, in co-operation with its partners Phoenix Aviation. AMREF Flying Doctors now has rapid response 24-hour air medevac capability from Mogadishu to Nairobi, South Africa, Europe or Asia, and it is the first EURAMI-accredited provider to have an aircraft and crew permanently based in Somalia that serves military, humanitarian and expatriate staff.
With a range of 1,500 nautical miles, the Citation 550 Bravo medevac jet now stationed at the Mogadishu International Airport with medical and air crew, has the capacity to evacuate patients to Kenya day and night, as well as to Southern Europe or South Africa with only one technical stop. The aircraft is fully kitted with a tandem Lifeport stretcher system to take two patients at a time, combined with state-of-the-art medical equipment, and oxygen lasting for up to 16-hour flights.
AMREF Flying Doctors commented on the decision to have a permanent base in Somalia: “The placement of this aircraft in full medevac configuration with two pilots, emergency flight physician and critical care flight nurse underscores AMREF Flying Doctors’ commitment to provide full-time readiness for the community involved in restoring peace and order in Somalia. An office and crew accommodation directly at the airport ensures that medical evacuation flights to Nairobi can be launched within 30 minutes from confirmation, saving crucial time to get critical patients to definitive tertiary care which is currently unavailable in Somalia.”
Plans are underway to expand AMREF Flying Doctors’ Mogadishu air ambulance operations to include intra-Somalia medical retrievals by positioning a Beechcraft King Air to service the untarmacked airfields within Somalia.
