By the Gazette Editorial Board FOR the fifth consecutive day, Saturday, forty seven professors of Al-Azhar University's Faculty of Medicine had been providing multiple medical care services to thousands of people in Chad's eastern region of Wadi Fira that borders the Sudan. Supported by a sufficient number of aides, pharmacists and nurses, the professors whose fields of specialisation cover as many as 24 branches of medicine had been discharging their duties 12 hours a day from 09.00am to 09.00pm as part of Al-Azhar University's medical convoy to sisterly Chad, the landlocked Central African country that shares borders with five countries: Libya to the north, the Sudan to the east, the Niger, Nigeria and Cameroon to the west and the Central African Republic to the south. Until Saturday, the convoy had managed to examine more than 15,000 people, giving priority to the elderly and critical cases, conduct 342 surgeries and dispense medicines to patients, per an illustrated Egynews report. The choice of the convoy's destination, the enthusiastic attitude of the high-powered medical team and the support staff and the diversity of the team's fields of specialisation all symbolised Egypt's genuine orientation of consolidating its ties with other countries of the continent especially through bolstering the spirit of African solidarity, enriching joint African action, and expanding development-based partnerships. As the convoy was heading to Wadi Fira, Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukri was in Bujumbura for talks with his Burundian counterpart Ezechiel Nibigira and to call upon President Pierre Nkurunziza for a consideration of ways to enhance the multi-faceted relations between Egypt and countries of the River Nile Basin and all other African countries. Day after day and in deeds before words, Egypt reasserts its genuine keenness on the furtherance of relations with countries all across the continent especially through the building of development-oriented partnerships and the constant widening of the scope of co-operation at both bilateral and continental levels.
