Chinese Government provides RMB 75.6 million grant for Bambao-Mtsanga Hospital Construction Project

Project narrative

On November 27, 2009, the Government of Comoros and the Chinese Urban Construction Research Institute signed a design contract for the Bambao-Mtsanga Hospital Construction Project. Then, on April 1, 2010, the Chinese Government and the Government of Comoros signed an exchange of letters related to a grant for the Bambao-Mtsanga Hospital Construction Project. China’s Ministry of Commerce was the source of funding and it reportedly committed RMB 75,630,000 in total. The project involved the construction of a 120-bed hospital — with pediatric, gynecology, surgery, outpatient, and emergency units — in the town of Bambao on the island of Anjouan (approximately 20 km from the Anjouan capital of Mutsamudu). The hospital also has a mortuary, a waste incinerator, and a radiology and digital imaging department. China Jiangsu International Economic and Technical Cooperation Group, Ltd was the contractor responsible for implementation. On February 5, 2011, the Government of Comoros agreed on a physical site for the hospital. Then, on December 16, 2011, a construction contract was signed. A groundbreaking ceremony took place on May 28, 2012 and the project was completed in July 2014. However, the hospital did not officially open until May 25, 2017. As of March 2019, the hospital was seriously underutilized due to staff and equipment shortages. Also, the poor quality of the road between Mutsamudu and Bambao made it difficult for patients to get to the hospital. According to France24, the hospital “looks.. like a ghost ship, with a handful of patients wandering its corridors in stifling heat.”