The country's participation in Rio marked its debut appearance in the quadrennial event, although it had competed in the Summer Olympics nine times since the 1972 Games.

The delegation consisted of a single middle-distance runner, Farhan Adawe, who qualified for the Games by meeting qualification standards in March 2016.

[2] Somalia was one of six countries to make their first appearance in the Paralympic Games; the others were Aruba, Congo, Malawi, São Tomé and Príncipe and Togo.

Adawe finished ninth out of fourteen para-athletes overall but did not advance into the final after being 0.08 seconds slower than the slowest competitor who made the last stage.

[12] Two months after the Games, he spoke of his desire to compete at the 2020 Summer Paralympics in Tokyo and wanted to promote para-sports in Somalia.