UAE aids battle against COVID-19 in Sudan with construction of Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Field Hospital

Construction of the Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Field Hospital, built under the directives and patronage of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, has been completed near Darfur in Sudan. 

The inauguration of the hospital was attended by a Sudanese delegation led by General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, Deputy Chairman of the Sovereignty Council, accompanied by Malik Agar, a member of the Council, the Ministers of Federal Government and Social Welfare, the Undersecretary of the Federal Ministry of Health, and H.E. Hamad Mohamad Al Jenaibi, UAE Ambassador, in addition to a delegation from Italy.

The Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Field Hospital is a 3,800 sq/m field hospital built to help mitigate the impact and contain the spread of COVID-19, in what is one of the worst affected African nations. It has 48 intensive care unit (ICU) beds and 160 isolation beds, as well as a host of facilities such as an outpatient clinic, pharmacy, laboratory, and staff accommodation for 70. The field hospital has a life span of more than 25 years and can be converted to a regular hospital after the pandemic is concluded, allowing it to provide services to nearly 2 million who would regularly come to Darfur for medical needs.

General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, Deputy Chairman of the Sovereignty Council, said: "Since the first day of our response to the pandemic, we have worked to ensure that there is enough hospital capacity to care for our people, and ensure the resources they need are available. An increase in hospitalisations has meant we needed additional capacity and we have done just that. With strong support from the UAE and with a local and international team of experts as our partners, we have been able to erect a field hospital in record time. The Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Field Hospital will provide the right resources to our medical staff and put us in a much better position to respond to any further spike in numbers."

Mr. Abdulla Al Rashdi, Chief Executive Officer at Tamouh Healthcare, said: “Tamouh Healthcare is proud to be at the forefront of the battle against COVID-19, supporting testing, healthcare and vaccine development both in the UAE and internationally. This field hospital will make a significant difference to the local Sudanese community which has been deeply affected and demonstrates how effective partnerships between government and private sector entities can be in implementing a successful humanitarian response to COVID-19 and beyond.”

H.E Hamad Mohamad Al Jenaibi, UAE Ambassador to Sudan, added: “The UAE is proud to offer its support to countries that are affected by COVID-19. We deployed a team of professionals to build the Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Field Hospital, which was completed in record time due to the modular container design used in the field. This will make a significant difference to the local Sudanese community and we are thankful to both our local partners, led by UAE AID, Tamouh Healthcare, and Sudan’s Dal Group, for their support.”

The consortium of UAE-based partners includes building contractor Prime Project International, Tamouh Healthcare, who developed the concept for Containerized Aid for Respiratory Emergencies (CARE); alongside Sudan’s local partner, Dal Group and Creative Python - all supporting the Sudanese government in building the field hospital. 

CARE or Re’ayah (meaning ‘care’) aims to convert modular 40ft containers into fully equipped medical field hospitals. The economical design is assembled on site, enabling a quick build of just 50 days and delivering a durable and much needed resource. These repurposed shipping containers can be quickly deployed to countries within emerging markets, who have a shortage of ICU beds as the pandemic continues to spread.

Today’s opening follows the inauguration of a number of COVID-19 field hospitals made possible by UAE’s AID, in the Guinean capital of Conakry in late 2020, in Jordan in January 2021, along with two new field hospitals being constructed in Mauritania and Sierra Leone.