Bamako and Moscow have signed a health cooperation agreement covering the prevention and control of epidemics, as well as vaccination.
The deal also provides for the deployment of Russian equipment in Mali and the training of Malian healthcare professionals.
The agreement was signed in Moscow on Wednesday, 28 October, by Mali’s Minister of Economy and Finance, Alousséni Sanou, and Anna Popova, head of Rospotrebnadzor, Russia’s federal agency responsible for public health surveillance.
Concluded on the sidelines of the third Russia-Africa Summit, the agreement identifies three priority areas: epidemic control, prevention and vaccination.
It also provides for the deployment of Russian health technologies and equipment in Mali, as well as skills transfer, training and support for Malian doctors.
According to the Malian authorities, the framework is intended to give health services access to additional resources for monitoring and responding to diseases with epidemic potential.
Rospotrebnadzor is already active in several African countries in the field of infectious disease surveillance. Its head, Anna Popova, said on Thursday that Russian mobile laboratories were now operating in 11 countries across the continent.
Russia has also announced that its health cooperation programme with African countries will continue until 2029.
According to figures presented by Moscow at the summit, 15 mobile epidemic-control laboratories have already been handed over to eight African countries, while about 450 specialists from the continent have received training under the programme.
The equipment is intended in particular to strengthen diagnostic capacity and the ability to respond when infectious diseases emerge.
The partnership signed with Bamako forms part of Russia’s broader health cooperation with Africa. It comes alongside other agreements Mali concluded in Moscow in the mining, transport and investment sectors.
MD/te/Sf/lb/as/APA