BOSASSO, Somalia (Reuters) – Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud said on Friday he had tested positive for COVID-19 and was in self-isolation.
Abdikarim Ali Kaar, Mohamud’s spokesperson, said the president had returned to Somalia on Friday from a trip to the United Arab Emirates.
The official Somali president’s Twitter account shows a video of him meeting the president of the UAE, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, with both men wearing masks, dated June 22. He also met Somalis based in the UAE.
“My fellow citizens, I would like to inform you that today I tested positive for COVID-19. So far, I have no symptoms but I will continue to self-isolate and serve the people of #Somalia from home,” he said on his Twitter account.
Somalia has so far registered 26,748 COVID-19 cases and 1,361 deaths, according to a tally from its health ministry.
Mohamud took office in May after winning the presidential vote for the second time, having previously served from 2012 to 2017.
(Reporting by Abdiqani Hassan; Writing by George Obulutsa; Editing by Alison Williams)
