BURUNDI—The Burundi National Defense Force (Burundi NDF), has received medical readiness training from U.S. Army’s Southern European Task Force, Africa (SETAF-AF), 44th Medical Brigade, and 39th Forward Resuscitative Surgical Detachment.

The Burundi NDF hosted the American medical military delegation as part of a Medical Readiness Exercise (MEDREX) at L’Hopital Militaire (Military Hospital) in Bujumbura.

MEDREX is a medical readiness exercise, planned and executed by the United States Army Southern European Task Force, Africa.

The program allows military health specialists from the U.S. Army and their African Partners to exchange medical practices, procedures, and techniques that build and strengthen treatment capabilities, resulting in lasting relationships between medical professionals.

Burundi Medrex  is the third of eight MEDREXs scheduled throughout the African continent in the fiscal year 2023 by SETAF-AF and the first to be held in Burundi.

SETAF-AF coordinates each MEDREX with African militaries and U.S.-based Army medical providers to enhance the medical operational capabilities of participants.

U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Todd R. Wasmund, commanding general of SETAF-AF said, “We have a shared interest in promoting a secure, stable, and prosperous Africa.”

Maj. Gen. Wasmund also added that the MEDREX program was a vital component of the program’s efforts, working with their African partners while addressing complex medical challenges.

The teams of U.S. and Burundi military medical professionals will collaborate and exchange best medical practices while working shoulder-to-shoulder to provide care to patients in the community.

They will offer a wide range of medical services ranging from general surgery, anaesthesiology, and operating room procedures to OB/GYN, emergency room care, and bio-engineering equipment repair over the three-week medical exercise.

The 20-person U.S. Army Medical team is comprised of doctors, nurses, medics, and bio equipment technicians from Fort Campbell, Kentucky; Fort Bragg, North Carolina; as well as Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston, Texas.

The exercise will allow U.S. and Burundi military teams to exchange medical techniques and procedures that build and strengthen treatment capabilities resulting in a ready medical force and strengthened relationships between partners.

An overview of past Medrex editions

Medical professionals from the U.S. Medical Command, North Dakota Army and Air National Guard, and the Ghana Armed Force collaborated in MEDREX Ghana 2023 at the 37th Military Hospital in Accra in June 2023.

MEDREX Ghana 2023 is part of Exercise African Lion 23, U.S. Africa Command’s largest annual combined, joint exercise taking place in Ghana, Morocco, Senegal, and Tunisia from May 13 to June 18, 2023.

Approximately 8,000 personnel from 18 nations are participating in African Lion 23.

Additionally, the U.S. Army and Air Force medical professionals from the Vermont National Guard conducted a medical readiness exercise with their Senegalese partners in March 2023.

The 40-person U.S. team worked alongside Senegalese hospital professionals to treat patients in a variety of medical specialties at the Thies Regional Hospital, located 70 kilometers east of Dakar, and at two smaller hospitals in and around Thies over the two-week Medical Readiness Exercise, MEDREX Senegal 2023.

For the first ever the Angolan Armed Forces, in partnership with the U.S. Army Southern European Task Force, Africa (SETAF-AF) and the 807th Medical Command, U.S. Army Reserve, hosted the MEDREX Angola.

The Angolan edition was at the Principle Military Hospital in Luanda in November 2022.

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