Press release
Banjul, April 15.- The government of Cuba and Gambia renewed today in this capital the Cooperation Agreement in the field of health that both brother countries have maintained for almost three decades.
The agreement, signed by the Gambian Minister of Health, Dr. Ahmadou Lamin Samateh, and the Cuban ambassador, Rubén G. Abelenda, guarantees that doctors and healthcare personnel from the largest of the Antilles provide health care to this West African nation.
Samateh and Abelenda, together with the head of the Medical Brigade here, Dr. Juan Oquendo Montes, showed satisfaction with the updating of the Agreement and agreed that their signature demonstrates the positive relations between their respective governments and peoples, united by their history, roots, culture, and a friendship based on respect and mutual solidarity.
Cooperation between the two countries dates back to June 1996, when a total of 38 collaborators arrived in Gambia in the form of Technical Assistance.
Starting in 1999, they implemented the Comprehensive Health Program, which made this State one of the first in Africa to materialize this experience with the presence of more than 150 cooperators.
Currently, more than 100 medical specialists, graduates and technicians from the Caribbean island cure and save lives throughout the Gambian territory.
Also, at the initiative of the historical leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro, the Faculty of Medicine was created in 1999 at the University of Banjul, which operates to this day with the support of professors from the Antillean archipelago.
Officials from the Ministry of Health of this African nation and a representation of the island’s Medical Brigade were present at the signing ceremony.
