Sierra Leone News: We are here to spread friendship and give care to Sierra Leone –Admiral Bai lin

The commander of the Ark Peace Chinese military Naval ship Admiral Guan Bai Lin yesterday Tuesday on board the ship told Vice President Victor Foh that the reason they are in Sierra Leone is to spread friendship and treat as many people as they can before they leave.
He said some 46 years ago China and Sierra Leone started a fruitful relationship that he said both countries have enjoyed. “Beginning in 1973, China started sending medical personnel to Sierra Leone and during the ebola the medical arrangement between the two countries changed and now it has grown to a strategic partnership between the two countries.”
Admiral Guan Bai lin thanked the Vice President who visited them and said they will do all in their power to treat as much patients they can during their stay in Freetown.  The Commander of the ship said he has 381 personnel on board and they are coming from Djibouti where they had a successful stay treating thousands of people and hundreds of operations.
Thanking the Admiral and staff on board of the ship Vice President Victor Foh said the government and people of Sierra Leone are thanking them for their coming to Sierra Leone and they are looking forward to them to help as many Sierra Leoneans as possible.
VP Foh said both countries have developed a fruitful relationship and because Sierra Leone was the country that put forward the motion for China to be a permanent member of UN Security.
“Because of the relationship between us our relationship has grown from strength to strength and I am happy that this ship is here and I hope your voyage across Africa will strengthen the brotherly love between Africa and China.”
Vice President Foh told Admiral Bai Lin that president Koroma has promised to visit the Ship and is happy that they are in town to help treat less privilege Sierra Leone.
The Ark Peace naval Ship was commissioned in December 2008 and hull number 866. It was built in Guangzhou Shipyard. It has a length of 178 meters and a beam of 24 meters.
Ark Peace has eight levels and a full load of displacement of 14,300 tons. The 4000 m2 hospital is divided into five main areas respectively for casualty transfer triage, outpatient, inpatient and evacuation. The Ark Peace assumes the mission of treating and evacuating the casualties at sea during war time. Giving medical service to inhabitants and servicemen on islands during peacetime and participating in international humanitarian assistance.
They provide emergency medical in times of disasters as well as conducting military medical exchanges and cooperation with foreign countries. Because of all these services provided by the ship it has been referred to the ‘Ark of Life’.
China is one of the few nations with naval floating hospitals. The Chinese rationale for the ship was to give China a platform to provide a better means to providing quicker humanitarian response to disasters around the world, but others contend it also allows China to extend the navy’s blue water capabilities. The single ship of the class has a pennant number 866. The ship is assigned to the East Sea Fleet and based out of Hubei. The ship has 500 beds, 35 ICUs, 12 operating theatres, and the capacity to accommodate 60 major surgeries a day, about as many as a large hospital in Beijing. The ship is unarmed and painted white with red crosses to conform to the Geneva Convention criteria for a civilian hospital ship; firing upon it is potentially a war crime under international law.
On September 1, 2010, the hospital ship embarked on a three-month “Harmonious Mission 2010” to the Gulf of Aden with a total of 428 officers including 100 medical workers. En route it visited and provided medical treatment to the local people of Djibouti, Tanzania, Kenya, the Seychelles and Bangladesh.
During “Harmonious Mission 2011”, Peace Ark visited Cuba, Costa Rica, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago, the first Chinese voyage to the Caribbean.
In November 2013, the ship was deployed to Tacloban, Philippines to assist in the recovery from Typhoon Haiyan.
Peace Ark also participated as part of the Chinese contribution to Exercise RIMPAC 2014 in addition to the United States hospital ship USNS Mercy.
From October 7 to October 12, the hospital ship of the Chinese navy made its first ever port visit to Australia.
The ship, known as the Peace Ark, made the five-day goodwill visit as the first stop in a broader voyage across the Asia-Pacific code-named “Harmonious Mission 2015”, which China’s defence ministry says focuses on boosting military diplomacy, medical exchange and cultural communication including through the provision of free medical and humanitarian services.
Wednesday September 20, 2017.