Somali doctors first to graduate in two decades

They dodged firefights on their way to school and adapted to life in one of the most violent cities in the world. Yesterday 20 men and women did something that nobody in Somalia has done in nearly two decades: they graduated from medical school.

The graduation ceremony for 12 men and 8 women was held inside the barricaded walls of the Shamo hotel in the bullet-scarred capital of a country that has not had an effective central government since 1991. “The graduation of these students shows something that nobody outside Somalia can believe – that students can still learn despite violence and anarchy,” said Mohamed Malim Muse, the president of Benadir University, Mogadishu.

The doctors are graduating at a time when Somalis desperately need medical care while an increasingly powerful Islamic insurgency has taken over much of the country. (AP)