Jamilla fled Gao alongside thousands of others in 2012, when extremist groups occupied the northern Mali city. She is among those who has come back after years to rebuild, and uses her skills as a nurse to help the city to heal, despite ongoing insecurity in the region.
The health center where Jamilla works, “Centre Santé de Référence,” has a maternity ward and antenatal care, an X-ray service and a pediatric unit.
Gao is the main city in northern Mali. Occupied by extremist forces in 2012, most of inhabitants fled. Years on, the country is still living with the impact of the unrest. There are a total of 135,000 Malians still living as refugees in neighbouring countries, another 120,000 displaced in their own country.
Despite all this, Gao’s population has grown, reaching some 60,000. The main city in the Malian Sahel, with a strong international security presence, it has also attracted those looking for greater security in the region. During the occupation, the hospitals and public service facilities were ransacked, equipment stolen or destroyed.
UNHCR, along with NGOs and partners organizations, have worked to rehabilitate the main local hospital, which provides services for the regional population – and where Jamilla Amadou works.
At home Jamilla continues to care for others. She has offered shelter to girls from nearby villages who fled when armed bandits attacked.
LThe Sahel is still a troubled region: a vast area where different armed groups proliferate. MINUSMA, the UN Stabilization Mission, operates with more than 30,000 people working in the country. The volatile security environment in northern and central Mali as well as in the border areas continues to trigger forced. The 2015 Peace Accord and Reconciliation in Mali still lacks necessary support and its implementation has been minimal~ UNHCR
