Havana, January 3 (RHC)--The governments of Cuba and the Gambia have renewed the Cooperation Agreement in the field of health, signed more than two decades ago.

This agreement, signed in Banjul by the Gambian Minister of Health, Ahmadou Lamin Samateh, and the Cuban Ambassador to the African country, Rubén Abelenda, ensures that Cuban doctors and healthcare personnel continue providing health care to the people of that African country.

The signatories voiced satisfaction for the renewal and pointed out that its signing is evidence of the positive state of relations between governments and peoples, bound together by their history, roots, culture, and a 'friendship based on respect and mutual assistance'.

According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs website, cooperation in health between Havana and Banjul dates back to June 1996, when 36 Cuban personnel were deployed in the West Africa state.

Three years later, in 1999, the Integrated Health Program (IHP) was implemented in The Gambia. It was the first African country to implement such a program with the assistance of more than 150 Cuban health professionals.

Likewise, at the initiative of the historic leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro, the Gambian School of Medicine was created in 1999. To date,  it works with the support of professors from the Caribbean nation.