Abdulkadir Abdirahman Adan

Abdulkadir Abdirahman Adan is a Somali dentist whose determination to save lives led him to play a leading role in improving emergency medical response in Mogadishu. Trained in Pakistan, he returned to Mogadishu in 2006 and opened a small clinic in one of the city’s largest markets, a place deeply scarred by decades of conflict and instability.

Every day, he witnessed victims of violence being carried to hospitals in wheelbarrows, including women in labor and patients with critical injuries—a reality that haunted him and revealed the fragility of the city’s healthcare infrastructure. 

“I asked myself, ‘What can I do?’ I decided to start my own ambulance, a free ambulance.” 

At the time, Mogadishu, home to nearly three million people, had only two paid ambulance services. Determined to change this, Dr. Adan spent all of his savings, $4,200, to buy a used minibus and began transporting the injured, the sick, and women in labor to hospitals. The need was immediate and overwhelming. He began raising funds in markets, shops, universities, and among businesspeople, asking everyone he met to donate just one dollar a month to help save lives. 

Slowly, a movement formed around his mission. With community support, Dr. Adan purchased more second-hand ambulances from Dubai. Later, the World Health Organization donated two vehicles. Other contributions included walkie-talkies from the UNDP. Yet the backbone of Aamin Ambulance—named after the Somali word for “trust”— remained the Somali people themselves: medical students, small business owners, and ordinary citizens who believed in the value of a service built entirely on trust and solidarity.

Today, Aamin Ambulance operates 24/7 through a 999 hotline and runs Mogadishu’s largest free ambulance service, with around 20 vehicles staffed mainly by volunteer drivers and medics.  

In October 2017, when a massive truck bombing killed more than 500 people and injured hundreds, Aamin Ambulance was among the first responders. “We transported more than 250 injured people and nearly 80 bodies,” Dr. Adan said. The attack became one of the darkest days in Somalia’s recent history, and the response of Aamin’s volunteers underscored the critical role they had come to play. 

His team, trained by local hospitals, the World Health Organization, and the Red Cross, continues to operate under constant risk. “Sometimes soldiers fire at us or block us from accessing the scene to rescue someone,” he explained. Still, Dr. Adan remains driven by a single belief: “The most valuable thing for me is human life. That is my driving force.” 

Aamin Ambulance now responds to everything from road accidents and medical emergencies to pregnancy complications and explosions, functioning almost entirely on local donations and community trust. 

“My dream,” Adan says, “is to reach every district and every village in the regions, everywhere in Somalia, so that my ambulances can reach there and serve people.”