Ethiopia provides scholarships to South Sudanese medics

By Simon Deng

The Ethiopian government has offered 29 scholarships in various Ethiopian universities for South Sudanese medical doctors, Nebil Mahdi, the Ethiopian Ambassador to South Sudan said.

The various fields of the scholarship include in internal medicine, orthopedics, obstetrics and gynecology, pediatric, urology, radiology and general surgery.

“Ethiopia and South Sudan have very strong ties,” Mahdi told reporters in Juba.

“The foreign policy of Ethiopia gave priority for its neighbors, and we are ready to work with South Sudan,” he said.

Mahdi said that Ethiopia has so far offered over 1000 scholarships to South Sudan since 2015, a high number in comparison to neighboring countries.

“This support for you will continue, it is our responsibility because the priority for any development for Ethiopia in South Sudan is focusing on human resources development,” he said.

Samuel Maketh, the Deputy Director for Medical Training at the Ministry of Health said the scholarship is 90 percent funded by Ethiopia.

“Ethiopia was the first country to offer our doctors this kind of scholarship, we are only doing 10 percent of the scholarship,” Maketh told reporters.

“Ethiopia government is taking care of the tuition fees, accommodations and feeding, we are taking care of their visas, flights and then their upkeeps,” he said.

Reagan Taban Augustino, the coordinator of the students said they will abide by rules and regulations related to the scholarship, and commit to successfully completing their studies.

“By giving South Sudanese doctors opportunity to specialize in different universities, it reflects improving the health status of our people,” Augustino said.

“We believe all these opportunities will consolidate and tie the relation between the two sister countries.”