Military Diplomacy

China's 12th Military Medical Expert Group to Aid Ethiopia Departs

中国第12批援埃塞俄比亚军医专家组出征

PLA Daily (解放军报) 16 May 2026

Summary

The PLA's 12th Military Medical Expert Group to Aid Ethiopia—13 specialists drawn from the First Affiliated Hospital of the Army Medical University—departed for Addis Ababa on May 16 for a one-year mission focused on clinical care, training, and technical assistance at the Ethiopian Military General Hospital and the Ethiopian National Defense Force's high-technology hospital. The deployment is the latest iteration of a program running continuously since 2015, through which the Army Medical University has embedded over 100 military medical personnel in Ethiopia, making this a well-institutionalized military-to-military engagement rather than a novel initiative. The mission is useful as evidence of the PLA's sustained effort to build defense health partnerships in sub-Saharan Africa and to project soft power through military medical diplomacy under the 'community of human health' framework.

Translation

China's 12th Military Medical Expert Group to Aid Ethiopia Departs

On May 15, the Army Medical University held a departure ceremony for the expert group. Photo by Wei Hongping.

PLA Daily report by Huang Qi'ao and reporter Zhu Baiyan: In the early morning hours of May 16, China's 12th Military Medical Expert Group to Aid Ethiopia departed for Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital, to carry out a one-year medical aid mission.

The expert group dispatched on this mission comprises 13 military medical experts, organized and drawn primarily from the First Affiliated Hospital of the Army Medical University. The experts span multiple specialty fields including orthopedics, infectious disease, ophthalmology, respiratory medicine, urology, general surgery, and traditional Chinese medicine, and all possess a solid theoretical foundation and extensive clinical experience.

During the mission, the expert group will, in accordance with Ethiopia's medical needs and actual conditions, carry out work in the areas of clinical diagnosis and treatment, personnel training, and technical guidance and assistance, continuously enhancing the medical support capabilities of the Ethiopian Military General Hospital, promoting the development of new technologies and new services at the Ethiopian National Defense Force's high-technology hospital, and providing support for the development of local medical and health services.

Since 2015, the Army Medical University has cumulatively dispatched more than 100 medical experts to Ethiopia to carry out medical aid missions. The medical experts at large have safeguarded the health of local military personnel and civilians with benevolent hearts and skilled practice (仁心仁术), earned high praise through superb medical skill and noble medical ethics, deepened the traditional friendship between China and Ethiopia through pragmatic action, and burnished the "gold signboard" of the Chinese military's overseas medical aid—standing as powerful testament to the Chinese military's practice of the spirit of international humanitarianism and its service to the building of a community of human health (构建人类卫生健康共同体).

Original Chinese

中国第12批援埃塞俄比亚军医专家组出征 5月15日，陆军军医大学为专家组举行出征仪式。魏红平摄解放军报讯黄琪奥、记者朱柏妍报道：5月16日凌晨，中国第12批援埃塞俄比亚军医专家组出征，前往埃塞首都亚的斯亚贝巴执行为期1年的医疗援助任务。此次出征的专家组共13名军队医疗专家，由陆军军医大学第一附属医院牵头抽组。专家涵盖骨科、感染病科、眼科、呼吸内科、泌尿外科、普通外科、中医科等多个专业领域，均具备深厚的理论功底和丰富的临床实践经验。执行任务期间，专家组将根据埃塞的医疗需求和实际情况，围绕临床诊疗、人员培训和技术帮带等方面开展工作，持续提升埃塞军队总医院医疗保障能力，推动埃塞国防军高技术医院新技术、新业务的开展，为当地医疗卫生事业发展提供支撑。 2015年以来，陆军军医大学已累计选派100余名医疗专家赴埃塞执行医疗援助任务。广大医疗专家以仁心仁术守护当地军民健康，以精湛医术和高尚医德赢得高度赞誉，以务实行动深化中埃塞传统友谊，擦亮了中国军队援外医疗的“金字招牌”，是中国军队践行国际人道主义精神、服务构建人类卫生健康共同体的有力见证。