A Nigerian medical team has performed West Africa’s first tele-robotic surgery, remotely operating on a cancer patient from around 500 kilometers away, the hospital’s press service said on Sunday.

The procedure, a right radical nephrectomy, involved removing a kidney affected by a cancerous tumor from a patient at Nisa Premier Hospital in Abuja. Surgeons at Redeemer’s Health Village (RHV) in Mowe, Ogun State, controlled the robotic system remotely via an internet connection, Punch reported on Monday. The operation was carried out in collaboration with RoboMed Global.

“We were able to operate on a patient in Abuja, 500 kilometers away. We were able to operate on a patient with a kidney tumor, a cancerous tumor. And so that was successful,” Prof. Obi Davies-Ekwenna, the robotic surgeon who led the procedure, said. The technology allows specialists to control surgical equipment from another location, potentially giving patients access to surgeons elsewhere in Nigeria or abroad.

“It’s a huge breakthrough, and then of course, it is the first time telesurgery has been done in West Africa,” RHV CEO Adedamola Dada said, as quoted by Punch. He identified a shortage of trained personnel as a key obstacle to the wider use of robotic surgery in Nigeria and urged the government to support training for surgeons, nurses and biomedical engineers.

Several days earlier, RHV announced that it had completed its first robotic surgery, a robot-assisted radical prostatectomy, a procedure to remove the prostate gland. The hospital said the operation was part of efforts to expand access to advanced surgical care in Nigeria.

Other West African countries have also recently reported complex surgical procedures. Earlier this month, a team of Malian doctors successfully separated conjoined twin girls in an operation that lasted several hours in Bamako.

Senegal, meanwhile, has begun locally producing DREPAF, a generic version of hydroxyurea used to treat sickle cell disease. Manufactured by Teranga Pharma, it has been described as the first generic hydroxyurea treatment produced in Africa, reducing reliance on more expensive imported drugs.