Chronic pain is one of the most prevalent and least addressed health burdens on the African continent. Yet for millions of patients, effective, specialised care remains out of reach. That gap — between the scale of the problem and the availability of trained clinicians — is exactly what WIP Africa exists to close.
Pain is universal. Whether it presents as persistent lower back pain in a labourer in Lagos, cancer-related pain in a patient in Nairobi, or neuropathic pain following injury in Cape Town — its impact on daily function, dignity, and quality of life is profound. And yet, across Sub-Saharan Africa, interventional pain medicine remains severely under-resourced.
The World Health Organization estimates that the global burden of chronic pain will intensify significantly by 2030, with the heaviest impact falling on low- and middle-income countries. Africa, with its rapidly ageing and growing population, sits squarely in that trajectory.
The Scope of the Problem
Several interconnected factors compound the pain care crisis on the continent:
In many regions, patients living with severe chronic pain have no access to a specialist within hundreds of kilometres. The few interventional pain physicians that do practise on the continent are often concentrated in major urban centres, leaving rural and peri-urban communities entirely without specialist care.
A Growing Community of Committed Clinicians
Despite these challenges, there is reason for genuine optimism. A growing community of African pain medicine specialists — many of whom hold FIPP and CIPS certification — are working to build sustainable pain care infrastructure on the continent.
WIP Africa was established precisely to support and accelerate this work. As the African regional platform of the World Institute of Pain, we bring together clinicians, educators, and institutions across the continent to share knowledge, raise standards, and expand access to training and certification.
Through our regional workshops, symposia, and clinician exchange programmes, we are working to ensure that African pain specialists have access to the same quality of education and hands-on training as their peers anywhere in the world.
The Role of Education and Standards
One of the most powerful tools we have is professional education. When a clinician completes a WIP-endorsed hands-on workshop or achieves FIPP certification, the impact ripples outward. They bring new skills back to their institution. They train colleagues. They advocate for better pain services in their region. They become part of a global network of practitioners committed to evidence-based, patient-centred care.
Standardisation matters enormously in this context. By aligning with the global WIP framework — its certification standards, its clinical guidelines, and its community of experts — WIP Africa ensures that pain medicine in Africa is not developed in isolation, but as part of a coherent, internationally recognised discipline.
What Needs to Happen Next
Addressing the pain crisis in Africa will require action at multiple levels:
None of this is achievable in isolation. It requires the collective effort of every clinician, educator, institution, and policymaker who recognises pain medicine as a fundamental pillar of patient care.
WIP Africa is building the platform for that collective effort. We invite you to be part of it.
EPP AWARD CENTERS
Pain Clinic – Cape Town
200C East Wing
Constantiaberg Mediclinic, Cape Town, South Africa
Director: Eric Wilson, BSc(med); MB; BCh;
DM; MSc (Pain); MMed; FIPP; RSA.
Dr Siyabonga Mkhize is a specialist anaesthesiologist based at Netcare The Bay Hospital with extensive expertise in interventional pain medicine. He holds double international certification from the World Institute of Pain as both a Fellow of Interventional Pain Practice (FIPP) and a Certified Interventional Pain Sonologist (CIPS), reflecting advanced proficiency in image-guided pain procedures.
Dr Mkhize has been in private pain practice since 2014 and leads Pain Clinic eThekwini, with additional practices in Richards Bay, Ballito, Ladysmith, and Mthatha (Eastern Cape). His clinical interests include interventional pain management, ultrasound-guided procedures, and multidisciplinary approaches to chronic pain care.
Professional Registration: MP 0528323 | PR 0727830
Certifications: FIPP (1494) | CIPS (387)
Contact: 032 586 8014
Neurosurgeon and Pain Interventionist
Upon completing Masters degree in Neurosurgery at the University of Pretoria in 2012, Dr Thobejane worked in Namibia and that is where his interest in pain management grew. He then obtained a fellowship in interventional pain management with the World Institute of Pain (WIP) in 2015, with interest in neuropathic pain and neuromodulation.
Currently in private practice at Zuid Afrikaans Hospital (South Africa) and Walvis Bay Medipark (Namibia). Trained and certified in minimally invasive spine surgery, spinal motion preservation techniques including endoscopic spine surgery, offering patients tailor-made solutions for various spinal pathologies.
Given his experience and clinical acumen, Dr Thobejane was appointed in key leadership positions by his peers, he became president of World Institute of Pain (Africa Section), deputy president of Pain South Africa and member of American College of Independent Medical Examiners (ABIME). Appointed ABIME Board Advisor representing Southern Africa in 2021. He was also an adjunct lecturer at University of Namibia, before he became a visiting consultant at the department of neurosurgery in Steve Biko Academic Hospital, Pretoria.
His services continue to be used as a proctor by multiple companies on the training for minimally invasive spine surgeries and interventional pain techniques in the field of pain management, conducting workshops for spine surgeons and surgeon to surgeon training.
Dr Caryn April is a specialised medical and interventional pain physician with a passion for inclusive, patient-centred care and chronic pain management. She runs her own private pain clinic at the Cure Day Hospital Foreshore in Cape Town and carries out sessional work at Crestcare Hospital in Malmesbury.
Dr April graduated with a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBChB) from the University of Cape Town (UCT) in 2010, achieving distinctions in her clinical and final clinical examinations. In her final year, she was awarded the class medal for surgery and the Donald Barnes Prize for the top student in Urology. In 2013, she completed a postgraduate Diploma in Primary Emergency Care (South Africa).
She subsequently worked as a full-time emergency medicine practitioner for the Melomed Hospital Group before deciding, in 2018, to pursue a career in surgery — first as a medical officer and then as a registrar in general surgery at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN). The following year, she completed her primary examinations in general surgery (Primary of the Fellowship of the College of Surgeons of South Africa — The College of Medicine South Africa), attending numerous surgical skills workshops and gaining experience across emergency and elective procedures. From 2021, she also assisted neurosurgeons and orthopaedic surgeons in private practice, including involvement in the first endoscopic spinal surgery performed in Cape Town.
From early 2021, Dr April chose to focus exclusively on interventional pain medicine. She has continued to build her expertise through attendance at numerous local and international World Institute of Pain (WIP) congresses and cadaver skills workshops, most recently in Budapest (2025), Istanbul (2024), and Cape Town (2024). She has presented research at the PainSA Congress and various faculty meetings and is actively involved in training and mentoring medical doctors with an interest in the field.
In 2024, Dr April obtained her Fellowship in Interventional Pain Practice (FIPP) from the World Institute of Pain after successfully sitting her FIPP examinations in Istanbul — a landmark achievement and one that makes her among only four South African women to have done so. In January 2026, she was elected Secretary of the WIP Africa Section and welcomed onto the World Institute of Pain Executive Board. She remains committed to advancing WIP's mission across South Africa and the wider African continent.
Dr. Agbazue has been in full-time private practice since 2007. He is an Orthopaedic Surgeon, with a special interest in Pain Management. He has rooms at Medi Clinic Vereeniging & Johannesburg Surgical Hospital.
He completed his Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) at the University of Nigeria during 1991. He received an Education Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates USA in 1997. He received his Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons at Glasgow, UK during 1998. In 1999, he completed a diploma in Primary Emergency Care (South Africa). He received a Fellowship at the College of Orthopaedic Surgeons, South Africa, in 2004, following his training in Orthopaedics at the University of the Witwatersrand from 2000-2004. During 2017, he received a Fellowship of Interventional Pain Practice at Miami (FIPP), USA. He is a Certified Interventional Pain Sonologist (CIPS), which he received in September 2023. He has extensive training in both Europe and Asia.
He has vast experience in arthroscopic, endoscopic, and innovative surgeries, including minimally invasive spinal surgery, minimally invasive hip surgery, and pain management.
He has performed thousands of surgical operations covering complex reconstructive surgeries, spinal deformity corrections, arthroplasties, sports medicine covering shoulder, knee, elbow, wrist, ankle, hip arthroscopic surgeries, and Endoscopic spinal operations.
International Speaker and Medical Trainer
He has internationally and nationally presented and trained (workshops) academic audiences on several medical specialist topics. During 2018 Dr Agbazue attended and presented a workshop for Smith and Nephew in Nigeria on hip and knee replacements. He is part of the World Institute of Pain and a faculty member of the World Institute of Pain Africa section and the current chair of the African section. He is also the secretary of the South African Endoscopic Society.
Medical Publication
He has published medical articles in Medical Magazines and medical Journals and is involved in research innovations.
Specialist Consultant
Neurospine
Vertice
Medtronic
Dr. Dennis Agbazue performed the first few cases of anterior minimal invasive Surgery (AIMS) hip replacements in the Vall Triangle from July 2019.
He has a passion for teaching and mentoring and loves soccer and chess