KINSHASA,
DR Congo
The Democratic Republic of Congo’s President Félix Tshisekedi has now taken over the helm of the African Union to serve as the chairman for one-year.
He replaces His south
African counterpart Cyril Ramaphosa, following the AU’s 34th summit on
Saturday.
But Tshisekedi faces
big challenges this year with the coronavirus pandemic hitting health service
and economies hard.
The continent has so
far been hit less hard than other regions, recording 3.5 percent of global
virus cases and 4 percent of global deaths, according to the Africa Centres for
Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC).
But many African
countries are battling damaging second waves while straining to procure
sufficient vaccine doses.
African leaders are
speaking out against hoarding by rich countries at the expense of poorer ones.
“There is a vaccine
nationalism on the rise, with other rich countries jumping the queue, some even
pre-ordering more than they require,” said Moussa Faki Mahamat, chairman of the
AU’s executive body, the African Union Commission, in a recent interview the AU
posted online.
Vaccine financing is
also expected to be discussed at the summit.
Other issues facing the continent are the Nile Dam dispute and conflicts in Ethiopia’s Tigray,the Sahel and the Central African Republic.
No comments:
Post a Comment