Bomb explodes minutes before Qena hospital opening

A bomb exploded near the Qena Central Hospital in Upper Egypt minutes before a scheduled visit by the minister of health to inaugurate it, the state-owned Al-Ahram portal reported on Saturday.

No casualties were reported. Eyewitnesses told the portal that unidentified people threw the bomb near the hospital, which produced a loud explosion.

Nevertheless, Minister of Health and Population Adel al-Adawy arrived at the hospital, alongside Qena Governor Abdel Hamid al-Hagan, and continued with the scheduled inauguration, the state-run EgyNews portal reported.

The portal quoted Ahmed Helmy, a journalist for Egyptian television in Qena, as saying that the primitive bomb exploded only three minutes ahead of the minister's arrival. However, there was no decision to evacuate the hospital, and the inauguration took place as planned.

The cost of the new hospital, which has been under construction since 2003, has reached LE75.7 million, ​according to EgyNews.

Qena is considered one of the poorest governorates across Upper Egypt and amongst rural areas in the whole country. A marker of health issues in Qena is the lack of available health units, lack of medical specialization and resident doctors, among other things.

Qena has been a site of contestation among different political players in the last three years, with the Muslim Brotherhood beating out the old regime for control of the area in past elections. However, critics see that these political rivalries have not translated into real socio-economic changes on the ground.