Authorities probe clinics operated by North Korean officials in East Africa region

Authorities are investigating the operations of clinics run by North Koreans in the East Africa region at large.

The clinics are based in Mombasa, Kenya, Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania and Kinshasa, DRC.

According to preliminary findings, the operators of the clinics are posing as Chinese.

They usually fly to either Tanzania or Uganda before venturing into the business.

Officials say the clinics also offer traditional medicine which seems unregulated.

“In Mombasa, they operate in the Tudor area where we understand they operate a clinic in disguise,” said an official aware of the operations.

North Koreans are banned from operating such businesses in most parts of the world.

The investigators say they fear money gained from the entities is sent back to North Korea to help the administration there.

Meanwhile, several Congolese patients and other sick people who visit over the days some North Korean clinics located in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, are distressed by language difficulties encountered in front of the healthcare workers assigned to these training courses during medical consultations and other interviews.

“We experience enormous difficulties when we come to this clinic for care given that the doctor who must consult us speaks neither French nor English, much less one of our official languages,” admitted some patients encountered in various clinics.

For the latter, this deplorable situation does not allow them to ensure whether their complaints are really taken into account by the doctor who consults them, which calls into question the care administered to them and which could compromise their health. .

“If they do not make efforts to master French, English or one of the Congolese national languages, what will be the continuation of our treatment and how can we continue to trust them? What if they give us inadequate treatments for our illnesses?” they asked.

Some patients found in another clinic reported that other North Korean doctors use their traditional products including drinks contained in already used water bottles and are without mention of the production company, no brand or name of the product on the packaging and especially the absence of the expiration date which puts them in doubt about the condition of the medication.

“We are given beverages contained in already used water bottles with no mention above, no manufacturer, no expiration date, no composition and precise doses on the bottle.”

“So being sick, I am obliged to take this as long as I am only cured without knowing the positive or negative consequences that will result from it,” admitted another patient who came for the treatment of gastritis.

Apart from these hazards, the reduced number of nursing staff, the hygienic conditions, the conservation of products and machines do not seem to respond favorably and completely to the required medical standards.

“The medicines they gave me are not kept in fridges or freezers, not even in a pharmacy but rather on the table and in conditions that they themselves know. We cannot explain because we did not see pharmacies or storage refrigerators. This worries us and we can only accept this because of our vulnerable state,” lamented patients at a clinic located in the commune of Barumbu.

Faced with this situation, these patients have not explained how the owners of these clinics have been able to set them up for ages without making a simple effort to master one of the languages spoken in the DRC.

Apart from these difficulties, the purchase of a sheet, the examinations and the consultation are fixed in American dollars and not in Congolese Francs while each session is fixed at 10 US dollars per day for 30 days.

The patients called for the involvement of the competent public authority in matters of sales, taking appropriate measures, which are necessary in the field of health for obvious reasons.

More than five clinics belonging to North Korean subjects are located across the city of Kinshasa and specialize in medicine and the traditional pharmacopoeia of this country, it was observed.