14ymedio, Havana, 4 February 2019 — Chad pledged to reimburse Cuba before the end of the first half of this year the almost 18 million dollars that it owes for the training of its students in the health field on the island.
Last Friday, the Minister of Finance and Budget of Chad, Allali Mahamat Abakar and Marcia Cobas Ruiz, Deputy Minister of Health and in charge of medical cooperation in third countries signed a memorandum by which N’Djamena promises to pay 50% of the total of the backlog, about 10,200 million FCFA (African Francs).
They will then pay the remaining 50% balance in two equal installment — the first on March 15th and the other prior to June 15, 2019.
The arrears are due to “failures in the Chadian economy,” explained Mahamat Allali Abakar before recalling that “Chad has more than 300 students in Cuban universities.”
For her part, Marcia Cobas Ruiz said that “the Chadian students are very studious, very disciplined and will be very good doctors”.
44 Cuban doctors are currently working in Chad.
In mid-2018, the Cuban government protested the lack of payment for medical services in Ghana and pointed out, as an example, precisely the compliance of poorer countries such as Chad.
Translated by Wilfredo Díaz Echevarria
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