Kigali, 11 June 2012 -- On the invitation of the Government of Rwanda, the WHO Regional Director for Africa Dr Luis Gomes Sambo is paying an official visit to Rwanda from 11 to 13 June 2012.

On his arrival at Kanombe airport in Kigali, he was welcomed by the Minister of Health, Dr Agnes Binagwaho together with the WHO Representative Dr Delanyo Dovlo and other officials of the health ministry.

The Regional Director indicated that the main purpose of his visit is to strengthen the ties of cooperation between WHO and Rwanda, witness the commendable progress the country has made in the health sector and find the ways and means to meet the challenges faced by the country in its efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals.

During his visit to Rwanda, the Regional Director will meet the country's senior members of Government including the Minister of Health, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, and the Mayor of Kigali, and hold talks with national institutions for health training and research. The Regional Director will also go on field visits to see for himself the progress Rwanda has made in health at the decentralized level.

The Regional Director is accompanied, in his visit, by the Director of the Health Promotion Cluster, the Regional Advisor for HIV/AIDS and the Coordinator of the Research, Publications and Library Programme of the WHO Regional Office for Africa. It would be recalled that the Regional Director, Dr Luis Gomes Sambo paid an official visit to Rwanda in 2007 and, subsequently, in 2009, on the occasion of the Fifty-ninth session of the WHO Regional Committee for Africa, held in that country.