Mo Ibrahim talks COVID-19 in Africa and international cooperation with BBC Focus on Africa
17 April, 2020
In a recent interview with BBC Focus on Africa, our chair, Mo Ibrahim talks international cooperation in relation to combating COVID-19 in Africa and around the world.
Following the recent decision taken by the United States to stop funding the World Health Organization (WHO), Mo stressed the need for greater international collaboration explaining that:
This is not the time to turn our backs on our international organisation, we need it more than any time to deal with what is a global pandemic. We need to act together.
Mo also applauded the Call for Action recently issued by 18 African and European leaders for, ‘an urgent debt moratorium and unprecedented health and economic aid packages,’ to support Africa countries in mitigating the impact of the coronavirus.
On Africa-China relations, given recent reports of mistreatment of Africans in China, Mo highlighted again the importance of international cooperation:
It’s not in anybody’s interest to escalate these incidences… what we ask is for the Chinese government to step up quickly and deal with this. I am all for globalisation and cooperation between nations, and China is part of that.
