Italy-Congo Health Deal Shapes New ICU Capacity
A new intensive care unit has been inaugurated at Makelele Hospital, the largest health facility serving southern Brazzaville, in a project linked to the Mattei Plan—Italy’s framework to support selected African countries.
Italian and Congolese officials present the move as part of a broader agreement between Rome and Brazzaville to support the health sector, valued at 236 million euros over five years, according to the information provided around the visit.
High-Level Visit in Brazzaville Highlights Practical Projects
The Italian delegation, led by Italy’s Minister of Health Orazio Schillaci, visited Brazzaville on Friday, January 9, 2026. The tour took place in the presence of Congo’s Minister of International Cooperation, Denis Christel Sassou-Nguesso.
According to the account shared from the ground in Brazzaville, the delegation’s first stop was Blanche Gomes Hospital, another site that has benefited from Italian support, before moving on to Makelele Hospital.
Inside Makelele Hospital’s New Intensive Care Unit
At Makelele Hospital, the delegation spent time reviewing the new resuscitation and critical-care setup. Hospital leaders described it as a concrete response to long-standing needs in a densely populated part of the capital.
Regis Karym Ntsila, the hospital’s director, said the Italian partnership helped equip the unit with essential items used in intensive care: beds, ventilators, and monitors—tools that, in practice, define whether an ICU can function beyond basic observation.
A Long-Delayed Project, Now Delivered
For the hospital, the inauguration carried the weight of an overdue milestone. Leaders at Makelele indicated the ICU had been awaited for years, making the opening feel less like a ribbon-cutting and more like the completion of a postponed promise.
“It is the outcome of a project that dragged on for years,” Ntsila said, adding that the project has now been implemented. He also thanked the Congolese government and Italian partners for enabling Makelele to have an ICU unit.
Why This Matters for Southern Brazzaville Patients
Until now, patients in the south of Brazzaville requiring intensive care were typically referred to the University Hospital Center (CHU), located several kilometers away. In emergency medicine, that distance can translate into critical minutes lost.
By placing resuscitation capacity closer to where many patients live, the new unit is expected to reduce pressure on the CHU and shorten referral pathways, even if the hospital describes its ICU as calibrated to its role as a reference facility.
Cooperation Under the Mattei Plan: A Focus on Health
The visit illustrates how the Mattei Plan is being presented on the ground: not only as a diplomatic label, but as a series of visible investments in services. In this case, the emphasis is on strengthening hospital readiness for severe cases.
Officials framed the Makelele and Blanche Gomes upgrades as steps within the larger five-year, 236 million-euro health cooperation package, signaling an approach focused on equipment and facility-level capacity building.
Local Expectations and the Next Steps for Care
Healthcare workers in Brazzaville often measure reform by what changes inside wards: whether devices are available, whether patients can be stabilized quickly, and whether transfers become less routine. The Makelele ICU is intended to shift those daily calculations.
The authorities’ presence at the site also sends a message of coordination between partners and institutions. For hospital managers, the test will now be continuity—keeping the unit functioning at the expected level as demand inevitably rises.