LUSA 07/08/2025

Lusa - Business News - Guinea-Bissau: Only one hospital for 23 inhabited Bijagós islands

Bissau, July 7, 2025 (Lusa) - The Bijagós archipelago in Guinea-Bissau, with around 33,000 people spread across 23 inhabited islands, has only one hospital located in Bubaque, Élcio Marques Vieira, a nurse on the island of Formosa, told Lusa.

Élcio and two other nurses work at the Formosa health centre, and they regularly provide care to the populations of the neighbouring islands of Tchedignha, Nghago and Maio whenever transport is available.

Even in serious cases involving children or pregnant women, Élcio and his team require additional support to transport patients to the hospital in Bubaque, he told Lusa.

“We are a type C health centre for primary care. We receive patients and assist for three days. If they improve, we continue supporting them; if they need further care, we take them to Bubaque, where a regional hospital offers additional resources,” he explained.

For these and other trips, Élcio’s team ends up resorting to fishermen’s canoes, even though they know that the canoes are “completely unsuitable” for transporting patients or medicines safely.

“For example, at the moment, we have no paracetamol syrup, and we expect to receive some next week,” he noted.

The nurse would like the government to expand the Formosa health centre to accommodate more technicians, who currently share the same space.

“The centre needs to be expanded to create a small paediatric ward and also to separate the consultation rooms for adults and children,” argued Élcio Marques Vieira, who has been working in the Bijagós Islands for about ten years.

Before arriving at the Formosa health centre, Élcio worked on the islands of Unhocume and Sogá.

Nurse Tamara Fernandes Monteiro Sá worked on the islands of Caravela, Bubaque, and Uno between 2014 and 2020, until she returned to the Simão Mendes National Hospital in Bissau. However, she remembers the difficulties she experienced in “solving the problems of patients, especially pregnant women.”

“You can reach the islands near Bubaque with ease once you come to Bissau and take a pirogue,” explained Tamara Sá, praising the support she received from a project run by non-governmental organisations (NGOs) working in the area.

The nurse considers the Bijagós islands to be a rich area, but one where productivity and the availability of essential services, particularly transport and money transfer agencies, remain limited, which ultimately makes necessities more expensive.

Vendors sell rice, the staple food of the Guineans, at almost double the price compared to the mainland, said Tamara Sá, pointing out that the product comes from Bissau.

“Let’s say that money in circulation on the Bijagós islands is scarce,” observed the nurse.

Fisherman Ibraima Barros, based on the island of João Vieira Poilão, is pleased that UNESCO has designated the Bijagós archipelago a World Natural Heritage Site, and he looks forward to managing the potential growth of visitor interest in the region.

“The State of Guinea-Bissau will gain a great advantage if it keeps the fishing zone free from restrictions, because that will protect our activities from negative impacts,” said Ibraima Barros.

Domingos Alves, a journalist with the community radio station Okimka Pampa on the island of Orango Grande, is certain about the “benefits” of recognition for the Bijagós archipelago. He is now considering whether the State of Guinea-Bissau will have the capacity to monitor fishing activities in the area concerned, which includes the islands of João Vieira Poilão, Orango and Formosa.

Domingos Alves pointed to “continuous awareness-raising” among the populations of the Bijagós archipelago as a strategy.

The islands, considered a natural and cultural treasure, are among the 32 sites around the world nominated for World Heritage status, and UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, will announce its decision on 11 July in France.

The 47th meeting of the World Heritage Committee will take place until 16 July at UNESCO headquarters in Paris, France.

MB/ADB // ADB.

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