Following announcements in some media about the supposed return of specialists from the surgical team of our country that are attending a training in Norway, CIVIL’s monitoring team turned to the Ministry of Defence with a question as to whether this information is correct, to which we immediately received an answer denying the fake news:

A complaint from the Norwegian side has not been sent to the Ministry of Defence, or a demand for the return of any of the specialists attending the training in Norway. The surgical team from North Macedonia consisting of three specialists and two nurses from the public health care and one nurse from the military medical center are leaving for Afghanistan on March 1st, together with a Norwegian and Czech surgical team.

The medical team is finishing the specific military field training in Norway, which the public health doctors are going through for the first time, and will be deployed to positions in the Norwegian hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan. The six-member medical team is the first Macedonian surgical team to participate in a NATO mission since North Macedonia’s NATO membership, while the cooperation with the Norwegian colleagues, who are known for development of military medicine, is of exceptional importance.

North Macedonia, as a member of NATO, by 2028 should develop NATO capability in the form of a surgical team that will be available as a NATO resource, and participating in this mission in Afghanistan is the first step for preparation and development of this capability – stated the Ministry of Defence.

The fake news about the surgical team of North Macedonia is based on manipulating a scan from an internal document which, even though not classified, according to professional standards, is not anticipated to be shared publically. This case is not the first and shows that the reputation is not important to some party installations, and obviously neither is the security of their own country.

CIVIL Monitoring Team