The 20th Chinese (Shanxi) medical aid team to the Republic of Djibouti recently left Taiyuan, the capital of North China's Shanxi province, for the country in Africa to carry out a one-year foreign aid medical mission.

Apart from translators and chefs, 10 members of the team are physicians from Shanxi Provincial People's Hospital. Their specialties include emergency medicine, surgery, obstetrics and gynecology, ophthalmology, stomatology, acupuncture and otorhinolaryngology.

Liu Wencao, the head of the 20th medical aid team to Djibouti, said that due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the foreign aid handover time was delayed a full year. However, the team members have accumulated rich experience while battling the pandemic and are all ready to commit themselves to medical aid for the Djibouti people.

Shanxi has sent medical aid teams to foreign countries since 1975. Fifty-eight medical teams consisting of 1,254 members have been sent to Cameroon, Djibouti and Togo over the past 45 years.

Among them, 165 medical team members have assisted Djibouti, 28 of which were awarded the highest local honors, including the Independence Day Medal of the Republic of Djibouti and the Medal of the Great Knight.