The Somali militant group al-Shabaab is running a centre for the treatment of coronavirus, in the town of Jilib, 380km from the capital Mogadishu, according to a spokesman on Sunday.
Radio Andalus, which is associated with the group interviewed an unidentified man who claimed the organisation is currently running a centre aimed at treating cases of the virus in the areas under its control.
During the interview, an announcer had encouraged people with suspected symptoms of the respiratory illness to visit the centre in Jilib and said transportation is being arranged to ferry them there for medical attention.
Although the militant sect has lost important parts of the country to an African Union intervention force, Jilib had remain one of the few big towns still under its control.
This town of an estimated 125, 000 inhabitants has been under the control of militants since 2008.
Since 2006, the militant sect has been fighting to overthrow the government in Mogadishu and imposed a more puritanical Islamic political authority on the whole country.
The coronavirus case count in Somalia has reached 2,579 with 87 deaths, daily figures from the Johns Hopkins University seem to show.
WN/as/APA