Leapfrogging Rwanda’s Dirt-Road Infrastructure to Deliver Blood via Drones

Abdoul Nizeyimana is a 27-year-old medical drone operator, based in rural Rwanda, just west of its capital Kigali.¹ He works for Zipline, a Californian startup, in their first distribution centre, leading a team delivering life-saving blood supplies to the country’s remote hospitals by drone. He is one of Ziplines first local hires and part of a team that is almost all Rwandan.

Rwanda made headlines in October 2016, when President Paul Kagame and the Rwandan Ministry of Health took a gamble on the commercialisation of drones, becoming the first country in the world to introduce the technology into its healthcare system.² Rwanda is one of the world’s poorest countries³ and suffers from weak infrastructure, compounded by a mountainous terrain. During the rainy season, the hilly western and northern regions are prone to landslides and flooding.⁴ With transportation taking 4-5 hours by dirt road, it is challenging for doctors in Rwanda’s regional hospitals to obtain blood for vital emergency operations.⁵

Local operators like Abdoul dispatch up to 500 deliveries of medicine and blood supplies per day to hospitals in Rwanda’s western region — cutting journey times to around 45 minutes. They launch the drone from a small patch of land; the drone flies autonomously to the hospital, parachuting its cargo for staff to collect before returning to base.

For Abdoul, the greatest benefit of his job is in making a real difference to his country. On a personal level, Abdoul has been able to buy his grandmother a house, providing her with a better quality of life.⁶ His story offers a glimpse into the positive contribution drone technology is making to people’s lives in Rwanda.