Senegal: ALIMA’s Actions on the Ground
📍 ALIMA presence since: 2020
🛡️ Mission status: Completed
🔹 Key areas of expertise: Epidemics and emerging diseases
Humanitarian situation in Senegal
In 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic quickly spread in Senegal, with over 74,000 confirmed cases recorded across the country. The health system faced immense pressure, requiring a coordinated response to strengthen access to care, prevention, and confirmed case management.
Since the first cases were reported in March 2020, ALIMA supported the Senegalese Ministry of Health, focusing on:
- Screening and management of Covid-19 patients
- Strengthening health facilities in Dakar and its suburbs
- Raising awareness and community mobilization to prevent the virus’s spread
📌 Key figures of the crisis in Senegal
- 🌍 Population: 18 million (World Bank, 2023)
- 🚨 People in need of humanitarian aid: NA
- 🏠 Internally displaced persons and refugees: 11,800 (UNHCR, 2024)
- 🍽️ People facing severe food insecurity: NA
Medical aid and humanitarian response in Senegal
🦠 Epidemic response
Faced with the spread of Covid-19, ALIMA deployed an emergency response targeting both confirmed case management and community-level prevention efforts.
- Support for the Covid-19 treatment center in Yeumbeul
- Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) training for healthcare workers
- Assistance to Fann Hospital to improve patient management
- Rehabilitation of sanitation infrastructure (triage areas, laundries, incinerators)
- Community mobilization across 147 neighborhoods to raise awareness of risks and identify vulnerable people.
Through these actions, ALIMA contributed to improving Senegal’s health response capacity to the pandemic.
📊 In 2020, ALIMA cared for over 120 patients with Covid-19 and provided 3,000 free primary consultations.
On the ground
Our News from Senegal
COVID-19 in Senegal: The needs to fight the pandemic are significant
Interview with Dr. Charles Tehoua, Emergency Medical Coordinator for ALIMA (The Alliance for International Medical Action).
COVID-19 in Senegal: Using ‘savings and credit clubs’ to help at-risk people get health care
As a supporter of ALIMA (The Alliance for International Medical Action)’s ‘YES, AFRICAN’ campaign, Angélique Zapata, a former contestant on ‘Koh-Lanta,’ a French reality game
ALIMA in 2020
In 2020, ALIMA treated 1.3 million patients in 12 countries, while also responding to COVID-19, malnutrition, Ebola, and Lassa fever.