The IBEN SINA Hospital is the oldest healthcare facility in the town Annaba.
The French military hospital in Bona (now Annaba) was founded in 1865 to serve French soldiers stationed in the region. By 1878, it had expanded to include civilian departments to accommodate the influx of European settlers after the development of the railway lines. The two-story building, with 60 beds, was located near the port and treated between 200 and 300 patients a month, most of them soldiers suffering from tropical diseases such as malaria, which began to be studied microscopically there in 1878. The hospital included main departments: a surgical department for battle injuries, a department for the isolation of infectious diseases such as cholera and smallpox, a department for general medicine, and a women's department, as evidenced by the death of the wife of the settler "Emile Leclerc" during childbirth.
The hospital was run by the French military administration, with a French medical staff of 4 doctors and 10 nurses (French and Catholic nuns), while the Algerians were limited to cleaning or assistance work under strict French supervision. It faced major challenges, including a shortage of medicines and equipment in 1878, which forced doctors to use traditional treatments, and racial discrimination, as Algerians were treated in separate wings with inferior services. After Algeria's independence (1962), the building was transformed into the "Amara Rached Hospital", and some of its architectural elements, such as the main gate with French inscriptions, still stand today, as a testament to its colonial history.
- Photos (1-2-3) and main text by Islam Chergui (February 2025)
- Locate the item on this Google Map
Bibliography
- Henri Debray, “My Years in Algeria: Memoirs of a Military Doctor (1875-1880)”, PhD thesis, CITY YEAR OF PUBLICATION
- . Diary of the French settler "Emile Leclerc" Title: "The life of a settler in Pune: 1876-1882".
- . PhD thesis: “Medicine and French colonialism in Algeria (1830–1900)” University: Sorbonne University, Paris.