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The hospital was not spared by the conflict: some patients
and members of
the staff of the hospital lost their lives during the
evacuation of the more
seriously ill patients. These patients were transferred
in the hospital of
Cumura (30 km from Bissau) immediately after the beginning
of the
hostilities. In the autumn of 1998, only a year after
the beginning of the
management by the Community, the hospital was seized by
the Senegalese army,
who turned it into a base. Situated not far from the city
centre, on the
road leading to the airport, the building was in the front
line of the
fighting and was bombed many times. The wards, the laboratories
and the
outpatients' departments were destroyed.
![](../../../img/bissau/film_1.jpg)
All of the instrumentation, furnishings and equipment
have been put out of
service. In addition, the water supply and hygiene services
were ruined. The
most worrying fact is that the hospital suffered serious
structural damage.
That means that to get it back to working order, approximately
20% must be
torn down and rebuilt, while the remaining 80% must be
radically
restructured. Part of the damage, apart from that caused
by the bombing and
the presence of the soldiers, was also due to the rain
that, in the absence
of any cover, leaked freely into the supporting structures
of the hospital
for many months.
The Community of Sant'Egidio took on the task of raising
funds for the
reconstruction and rehabilitation of the hospital. The
reconstruction of the
buildings began in September 2000.
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