Italian colonial administration trained Somali men as military-ranked hospital nurses.

Evidence

Osman finally enrolled in the course for nurse apprentices at the approximate age of nineteen. After five months of study, the twenty recruits took their first examination, and Osman had the best grade in his cohort. He was immediately appointed as an assistant nurse with a salary of 258 Italian lire. The colonial administration considered nurses as part of the military, although they were unarmed, and supplied them with uniforms. Osman was appointed to work in the ward for whites of the Giacomo De Martini Hospital. — Abdi Ismail Samatar, Africa’s First Democrats, 146