President Paul Kagame Wednesday inaugurated the ‘President Paul Kagame Auditorium’ at the Research Institute against Digestive Cancer (IRCAD) based in Strasbourg, France.

Founded by Professor Jacques Marescaux Nshuti in 1994, IRCAD is a global institution dedicated to advancing and teaching minimally invasive surgery.

Rwanda is set to host the institution’s continental centre following a partnership that was signed between the centre and the Ministry of Health in 2018.

David Kamanda, Managing Director of IRCAD Africa, told The New Times in an earlier interview that IRCAD Africa centre will allow African surgeons to access some of the best training programmes in surgery and more precisely in minimally invasive surgery.

Whilst construction of a permanent home is underway in Masaka, Kicukiro District, Kamanda had earlier said that since 2019, IRCAD Africa has been operational from its temporary offices in Kigali’s Central Business District.

At the time, he pointed out, IRCAD Africa’s activities were mainly focused on research and development (R&D) in automated 3D modelling from medical images, modelling in surgical planning and software, as well as augmented reality.