His Excellency the President of the Republic of Somaliland, Ahmed Mohamed Mohamoud ‘Siilaanyo’, paid a first-hand visit to Hargeisa Group Hospital where a number of people who sustained injuries of various degrees during a fierce thunderstorm that shook the capital, Hargeisa, to the foundation on Monday afternoon, were being treated.
As soon as the storm abated, the President, accompanied by the ministers of Presidency, Health, Finance, Public Works, the Vice Minister of Health, the Vice Minister for Interior, the Police Commander, the Mayor and Deputy Mayor, MPs, the Director of the General Hospital and a number of other high officials from different branches of the government.
During the visit, the President at the bedside of all the injured, some of whom were in serious condition, one by one. He went on to stop by hospitalized statesmen such as Mohamed Abdi Iskeerse and MP Ibrahim Mohamed Hussein ‘Dhaadheere’, proceeding to prominent citizens on the sick bed such as Mohamoud Seeraar and Amina Yussuf Aar ‘Timadheer’.
The President, also, stopped by the beds of other inpatients that included the son of the Minister of Public Works.
His excellency the President prayed for them all for a speedy recovery.
The death toll stood at three during the visit.
The President, leaving the hospital, went on a brief inspection tour of the city seeing for himself the blocked streets, felled lamp posts, destroyed electricity facilities, collapsed buildings and, generally, the devastation wrought by the hour-long thunderstorm.
The President followed this initial visit up with a more exhaustive, very long tour around the city, next morning.
His Excellency promised that the government will spare no effort to help families affected by the storm stand back on their own feet again.
It has been reported since then that the known death toll in the capital reached 9, where over twenty were checked in for injuries sustained.
The President, since his ascent to power in 2010, made impromptu visits to hospitals and public places part of his adminstrational routine regardless of the hour or his personal safety to see for himself how constituents fared.
