"Only a global victory which includes Africa can end this pandemic"

Eighteen European and African leaders have called for urgent economic and health assistance to strengthen Africa's response to the coronavirus, because only a victory on that continent will ensure an end to the global health crisis. "Only a global victory that fully includes Africa can end this pandemic," the leaders said in a joint article published today in the British newspaper Financial Times. Among the European signatories of the text are the President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, as well as the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel; the Presidents of France, Emmanuel Macron, and Italy: or the Prime Minister of Italy, Giuseppe Conte. On the African side, the Prime Minister of Ethiopia and 2019 Nobel Peace Prize winner, Abiy Ahmed, and the presidents of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa, Egypt, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, and Kenya, Uhuru Kenyatta, stand out.  

"We must boost Africa's emergency health response capacity by providing immediate support to its public health systems," the heads of state and government said, emphasizing that "all available resources should be used within existing institutions and channels". "We must deploy - they continue - a massive economic stimulus package of at least $100 billion, as evaluated the African and UN finance ministers".

In this context, the leaders urge institutions such as the World Bank (WB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to contribute to this "unprecedented effort". "This crisis has shown how interconnected we all are. No region can win the battle against COVID-19 alone. If it is not defeated in Africa, it will come back to haunt us all," conclude the signatories. 

Although coronavirus cases among Africa's 1.2 billion people are more than 16.400, health experts warn that the continent is weeks behind the United States and Europe in the pandemic and infections are on the rise. The article was published after the IMF Executive Board on Monday approved immediate debt relief for 25-member countries to address the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on those nations, mostly in Africa.  

In an estimate published in March, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) stated that the crisis had already cost African countries losses estimated at $29 billion, a figure that is expected to increase in recent weeks as the effects of the pandemic become more severe. In Africa, the coronavirus has already caused more than 16,400 cases and 878 deaths in 52 of the continent's 54 countries, according to the latest count from Efe at 14:25 GMT based on government reports and data tabulated by Johns Hopkins University (USA). 
 

The poorest countries will be able to tackle the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic without being burdened by their foreign debt after the G20 decided on Wednesday to suspend service of the virus until the end of the year. While the G20 took this decision, which is strictly temporary, the U.S. Johns Hopkins University reported today that the pandemic has already affected more than two million people worldwide, of whom 128,071 have died. 

"We approve a temporary suspension of debt service payments for the poorest countries that ask for containment," the G20 announced in a statement at the end of its meeting on the occasion of the spring assembly of the IMF and the World Bank. The group, chaired this year by Saudi Arabia, includes the major advanced and developing economies, including China, which in recent years has become a major lender to developing countries, so their inclusion in the proposal is essential.