MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 19th May, 2020) The international community should focus on helping the developing African continent tackle the coronavirus outbreak, instead of being involved in the finger-pointing over who is to blame for the pandemic, the president of Kenya said on Tuesday.
Speaking at the New York Forum Institute's online roundtable "Resilient World: An African Call for a New World Order," Uhuru Kenyatta said that the region's success in defeating the coronavirus would depend both on an individual national response and "more importantly on our collective response as a continent." According to the leader, given the porous nature of borders in Africa, countries in the region need each other to overcome the challenge.
"But this is a problem that Africa alone will not be able to defeat... This is a problem that has not been created by Africa, but has the greatest chance of hurting Africa more than any other part of the world. So the international community itself has an obligation to support this continent of ours in our endeavor to defeat this disease. We are also appealing that this is not the time for blame game, this is the time to find solutions, find the vaccines, get the economies open," Kenyatta stated.
The president suggested that the world should step in and help Africa "create the fiscal space" to meet social needs and be "back on feet."
"This is not a handout, this is support based on the crisis that has not been created on the African continent," the African leader stressed.
As of Tuesday, Africa has confirmed over 86,000 COVID-19 cases, including more than 33,000 recoveries and over 2,700 deaths, according to the World Health Organization's (WHO) office in the region.
Last week, the WHO regional office for Africa warned that COVID-19 may infect a quarter of the continent's population over the year and kill up to 150,000 if no immediate action is taken.
