Published : 2025-04-06
On April 6, 1963, China dispatched its first foreign aid medical team, with the destination being the African country of Algeria.
Algeria was formerly a French colony, and after nearly a decade of war starting in the 1950s, it officially declared its independence in July 1962.
After gaining independence, Algeria faced a severe shortage of medical resources due to the withdrawal of foreign medical personnel, and the local government issued an urgent appeal for medical assistance to the world.
Subsequently, the Chinese Government assembled a medical team of outstanding doctors from Beijing, Shanghai, and other places, and became the first country to announce it would send a medical team to Algeria for long-term work.
The Chinese foreign aid medical team was stationed in Saida, near the Sahara Desert.
Due to harsh living conditions and poor medical infrastructure, local morbidity and mortality rates were quite high.
The Chinese medical team stayed there for two and a half years, treating over 370,000 patients, performing more than 3,000 surgeries, and delivering over 1,000 babies.
