This is an extremely terrifying and frightening
moment for the people of Africa.
It’s important to note that that report
that was released by the World Food Programme
was already saying to the world that in 2020
we were already facing a major food crisis.
That was before the coronavirus hit.
Now we’re looking at a situation where the
report says that we could be looking at about
300,000 deaths per day over a three-month
period.
Now, the reality for Africa is that before
even the coronavirus hits, this is what we
are dealing with.
We’re dealing with healthcare systems that
are not strong.
We’re dealing with a population that has
high levels of vulnerability because of the
high levels of HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis and
malaria.
And we’re looking at economies that are
actually really struggling.
So, right now I think we are in a very vulnerable
state as the African continent, and we hope
that international solidarity will be there
to help our people get through this very bumpy
ride ahead of us.
I think that the positive news is that the
extent of how fast the virus has moved through
the African continent has not been as devastating
as it was in Europe.
So, when we look at the situation in South
Africa, for example, the interventions that
have been made by the South African government
have really been to actually ensure, in the
first instance, that we prevent deaths, but
to actually buy time for when the pandemic
peaks, so that during this time we ramp up
on PPE, we ramp up on testing, field hospitals
and so on.
So that’s what’s been planned.
Right now, as we stand, the level of loss
of human life on the African continent, compared
to Europe or the U.S., for example, is still
painful, but, you know, like South Africa,
for example, the number is still under a hundred
deaths.
So, the preparedness, though, the preparedness
of African countries, if we have a situation
like what we had in New York in terms of ventilators,
equipment, trained personnel and so on, is
going to be pretty devastating.
So, that’s why I think the efforts now that
are being made by individual African countries,
but also by the African Union, needs to be
generously supported, because for many people
in Africa right now, the choice is almost
also between, if you want, a pandemic that’s
a health pandemic or a hunger pandemic.
And as many people are saying, you know, if
we don’t get killed by COVID-19, we’ll
get killed by hunger.
And so, balancing this is going to be a very
tricky act of leadership.
But what we hope is that we have a mentality,
in terms of how we think, we need to build
the continent forward, is not to build back
exactly what we had, which shows all these
vulnerabilities.
We have to learn from this so that we are
building in a way that we address the climate
crisis, we address inequality, we address
maldistribution of budgetary resources and
so on.
