In July 2025, the WHO African Regional Committee adopted a 2025–2035 strategy to address the 63% gap in access to rehabilitation through a five-pillar framework. The analysis shows that rehabilitation is systematically excluded from the medical curriculum in Central Africa, where one school devotes only 4 hours a year to the exception. This leads to failure in all pillars: policy makers do not understand services (Pillar 1), doctors do not know specialists (Pillar 2), drugs are preferred over interventions (Pillar 3), needs are not visible in data (Pillar 4) and funding is lacking (Pillar 5). Field observations from Cameroon document that patients travel more than 1,000 km for rehabilitation expertise. Without education reform, the strategy risks implementation failure. Integrating rehabilitation into the curriculum is a cost-effective intervention that strengthens all pillars.