Turkey will send 15 million Covid-19 vaccine doses to Africa, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced on Saturday at a major summit of the continent’s leaders, adding that the low vaccination rates there were a blot on humanity.

Ankara has invested heavily in developing trade and diplomatic ties with the world’s poorest continent during Erdogan’s rule as prime minister and then president since 2003.

Speaking to dozens of attending leaders and ministers, Erdogan said Turkey would ship 15 million Covid-19 vaccine doses to Africa, where cases are rapidly rising and vaccination rates are low.

“We are aware of the global injustice in accessing the Covid-19 vaccine and Africa’s unjust treatment,” Erdogan said.

“It is disgraceful for humanity that only six percent of Africa’s population has been vaccinated.”

Turkey is developing its own vaccine, known as Turkovac, which is in the process of receiving emergency use approval.

Following any authorisation, it will be shared with Africa, Erdogan said.

It was not immediately clear from his remarks whether Turkey would first send some doses of the internationally approved vaccines it was currently using, including those developed by Pfizer-BioNTech.

“In order to contribute to the resolution of this issue, within our means, we plan to share 15 million vaccine doses in the period ahead,” he said.

Soaring infection rates

The number of new infections in Africa has shot up by 57 percent in the past week, according to AFP calculations based on official figures.

South Africa is the hardest-hit country, becoming one of the first in the world affected by the new Omicron variant, which is believed to be even more contagious than past coronavirus strains.

Erdogan said Turkey wanted to strengthen relations with Africa in a wide range of areas including health, defence, energy, agriculture and technology.

“The real potential between us goes far beyond the targets we have,” he said.

In a final declaration, Turkey and African countries agreed to strengthen cooperation in several fields, including health “through further health sector investments”.

“With the declaration we have accepted at this summit and the joint action plan, we agreed on a road map to deepen our relations,” Erdogan told a closing media event.

Focus on trade

Trade between Turkey and Africa has grown in the past 20 years from $5.4 billion to $25.3 billion (4.8 billion euros to 22.5 billion euros) last year.

And in the first 11 months of 2021, it had reached $30 billion, Erdogan said.

Turkey has set an even higher target of trade volume for the future: $75 billion.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said the third Turkish-African summit — by far the largest to date — was being attended by 16 African heads of state and 102 ministers, including 26 top diplomats.

Erdogan also held one-on-one meetings with African heads of state, including Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, who have both expressed an interest in Turkey’s defence industry.

The next Turkey-Africa summit will be held in 2026 in an unspecified African country.

Source: AFP

The World Health Organization warned on Tuesday that the Omicron variant was spreading at an unprecedented rate and was likely already present in most countries. While Africa has recorded a massive rise in Covid cases over the past week, the number of deaths is lower than with previous waves, the health agency said.

The past week has seen an 83 percent jump in Covid-19 cases in Africa, with the increase in South Africa at 66 percent.

“We are cautiously optimistic that deaths and severe illness will remain low in the current wave,” said Dr Matshidiso Moeti, WHO’s Regional Director for Africa. “But slow vaccine roll-out in Africa means both will be much higher than they should be.”

Low vaccination rates risk providing a breeding ground for new variants, such as the rapidly spreading Omicron strain, which was first identified in South Africa, said the latest update from the WHO in Africa.

“We’ve known for quite some time now that new variants like Beta, Delta or Omicron could regularly emerge to spark new outbreaks globally, but vaccine-deprived regions like Africa will be especially vulnerable,” said Moeti.

At the current rate, WHO estimates it will take until May 2022 to have 40-percent vaccination coverage in Africa and until August 2024 to reach 70 percent, said the WHO-Africa statement.

“But we can still save many lives if we accelerate the pace of vaccination in early 2022,” Moeti said.

As of 13 December, only 20 African countries had vaccinated at least 10 percent of their population – the global target WHO had set for September 2021.

Only six countries have hit the year-end target of fully vaccinating 40 percent of their population, while only two – Mauritius and Seychelles – have reached 70 percent.

The latest surge across the continent was fuelled mainly by the Delta and Omicron variants.

Worldwide there have been more than 2,700 Omicron cases reported in about 60 countries, including 11 African countries.

Omicron spreading at unprecedented rate

The latest regional report came as the WHO reported that the Omicron variant was spreading at an unprecedented rate “probably in most countries”.

Since the new, heavily-mutated variant was first detected in southern Africa last month, it has been reported in 77 countries, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters.

But, he said, “the reality is that Omicron is probably in most countries, even if it hasn’t been detected yet.”

“Omicron is spreading at a rate we have not seen with any previous variant,” he said.

His comments came amid growing evidence that the new variant might also be better at skirting vaccine protections than previous ones, but could cause milder symptoms.

But Tedros cautioned against “dismissing Omicron as mild”.

“Surely, we have learned by now that we underestimate this virus at our peril,” he said.

“Even if Omicron does cause less severe disease, the sheer number of cases could once again overwhelm unprepared health systems.”

Not against boosters, against inequity

The WHO chief also voiced concern that many countries are rushing to provide booster vaccine doses in response to the spread of Omicron, in light of the persistent glaring inequity in vaccine access between wealthy and poorer countries.

“WHO is concerned that such programmes will repeat the Covid-19 vaccine hoarding” seen previously this year, he said.

He said there was not yet enough data to show a third dose is needed to effectively protect healthy adults against the variant, although he said that “as we move forward, boosters could play an important role”.

At the same time many vulnerable people in poorer countries have not yet received a single dose.

“Let me be very clear: WHO is not against boosters. We’re against inequity. Our main concern is to save lives everywhere,” Tedros said.

 “It’s a question of prioritisation,” he said.

 “The order matters. Giving boosters to groups at low risk of severe disease or death simply endangers the lives of those at high risk who are still waiting for their primary doses because of supply constraints.”

Source:  AFP

Under a blazing sun, two Cameroonian health workers, Irene and Lucienne, try to convince passers-by to be vaccinated against Covid. They accost a young man in his thirties, who refuses to accept.

“I don’t trust the vaccine,” Ramos says at the outset. “White people don’t like us. They want to kill us with vaccines in which they introduce illicit products,” he says.

In Cameroon, one of the sub-Saharan African countries most affected by Covid-19 with more than 107,000 infections, including 1,795 deaths, preconceived ideas, and misinformation on social networks are holding back the vaccination campaign.

Only 4.1% of the population aged over 18 has been vaccinated since the first doses were administered seven months ago, according to the Ministry of Health, a long way from the stated objective of 40%, five weeks before the African Cup of Nations scheduled to take place in the country.

“Psychosis”

Faced with the reluctance of Cameroonians, the government has launched a double vaccination campaign: one of 5 days, from November 17 to 21, targeting the entire population, and another of one month, from November 10 to December 10, for civil servants.

Irene and Lucienne positioned themselves in the early hours of the day in front of a small public hospital in Odza, a neighborhood of Yaoundé, where a vaccination post had been opened.

Their deployment, in the middle of the street, on a busy road leading to the airport, aims to arouse the interest of passers-by. But, says Lucienne, “very few” accept the proposal. “It is very difficult to convince. There is a real psychosis among Cameroonians,” she admits.

The day before, she reports, “someone threatened to punch me if I persisted in offering him the vaccine.

The argument that comes up the most is that the “Europeans” (referring more generally to Westerners, editor’s note) want to kill us,” adds Irene, her colleague.

The two young women try to convince another passer-by, Jamiro. She also declines the offer to be vaccinated.

“I read on the internet, and also learned in the street, that this vaccine makes you sterile”, she worries.

Disinformation

“The reluctance of the population is the result of disinformation through social networks,” David Messy, an agent of the Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI, a government initiative), explained to AFP.

“Some Cameroonians in the diaspora send messages to those in the country to present the supposed harm of this vaccination,” he accuses, while “vaccination protects”.

“The government strongly and firmly encourages all populations to be vaccinated,” pleads Manaouda Malachie, Minister of Health, on CRTV, the state radio. “We have enough doses for everyone,” he said.

But authorities need to do more to convince. “The biggest challenge is getting the right information to the people, who need to make their choice based on facts and not just opinions drawn from social networks,” says Professor Yap Boum II, regional representative of Epicentre, the research and epidemiology arm of Médecins sans Frontières (MSF).

“There are 30 times fewer deaths among vaccinated people than among unvaccinated people,” he continues.

“We have to go and vaccinate Paul Biya,” says an old man in the street who is offered the vaccine. Unlike other countries where heads of state have been publicly vaccinated, in Cameroon it is not known whether Mr. Biya, 88 years old, 39 of them in power, is vaccinated or not.

His Prime Minister, Joseph Dion Ngute, and some of his ministers have taken their shots on camera.

But some Cameroonians still question the existence of the virus, deeming the vaccine useless. “I’m not interested in the vaccine because I haven’t seen anyone sick yet. I doubt the existence of this disease,” says Jeannette Aboudi, 53, an orange seller in the market of Nfou, a small town in central Cameroon.

Andréa, a young woman in her twenties, has no hesitation since her aunt contracted respiratory distress from the virus. “After that, the family decided that everyone should be vaccinated,” she says, adding that she recently took her first dose.

Source: AFP

In the book ‘The Congo Cables: From Eisenhower to Kennedy,” there is a detailed plan in the presence of a sitting US president to assassinate Patrice Lumumba, whom the US considered a threat to its national interests. Nothing has changed since that plot to assassinate that great pan-Africanist about how the US and western nations operate internationally. It is all about national interests and the concerns of big western businesses. Many governments have figured out how to function internationally, but sub-Saharan African countries have not.”

If any evidence is required that Africa is considered on the global stage as only suitable for supplying vital raw materials for the rest of the world, the COVID-19 pandemic has made that clear. The UK, EU, and the USA’s latest travel bans on travelers from nine African countries have come as no surprise. The ban comes as the Centre for Disease Control announced that no cases of the Omicron virus had been found in the US. Why then was a ban against scientific advice imposed on these nine African countries?

Politics in the international arena have been laid bare since the coronavirus pandemic started.  Ever since the Covid-19 vaccine was manufactured over twelve months ago, the rich countries of the West have gone into hoarding and isolationist mode. Internationalism has had to wait as the rich countries look after their citizens and big businesses first, while hundreds of thousands die in Africa, Asia, and South America.

Although governments paid for many Covid-19 vaccine researches, the subsequent vaccine and cures have become the property of the world’s biggest pharmaceutical businesses. And they are waxing fat from the profits and patents. Due to the urgency of the moment and the havoc this global virus is causing worldwide, South Africa and India have led calls for rich nations to suspend intellectual property agreement that allows pharmaceutical conglomerates to monopolize medical knowledge. This proposal, expected to save millions of lives in developing countries, has been blocked by the UK and the EU. This is shameful.

The Omicron virus is the result of vaccine-nationalism, vaccine-apartheid, vaccine hoarding and a neo-colonial mindset. Scientists now say if immediate action is not taken to vaccinate the populations of the developing countries; more variants will make their appearance soon. Western nations have snatched and keep accumulating as many million vaccine doses as they can and are accomplishing some of the highest vaccination rates in the world. According to COVAX, around 100m of the vaccines in Western countries will pass their use-by dates in December while people in developing countries are dying from a global pandemic that was not their creation.

The disparity in vaccination numbers around the globe makes for depressing reading. South Africa has achieved only 27% vaccination rate, while most Western countries have attained vaccination rates higher than 69% with vaccines produced by Johnson & Johnson in South Africa. The vaccination rates in other parts of Africa are lamentable. According to the live tracker at https://africanarguments.org/, Chad has vaccinated 250,000 of its 16.5 million people. Cameroon has vaccinated 924,000 of its 26 million people. Nigeria has vaccinated 10.5 million of its 205 million inhabitants. The numbers are pathetic, but this is not a western problem; this is our—African—problem. The time for a change in Africa is now.

The international community has failed Africa if it cannot put lives before profits in a global pandemic. Our leaders and continent cannot afford to rely on cooperation with a world that values us not. We are better than just supplying raw materials and young qualified professionals to oil the economic wheels of the West. The time has come for Africans to realize that the world order and global institutions created after 1945 have failed our continent.

It is an open secret that African leaders have been nothing short of embarrassments for the last forty years, and their people, at home and in the diaspora, have been rightfully disappointed with them. Africa has had its fair share of self-inflicted injury, from auctioning its raw materials to western companies for private gain for the political elite to butchering constitutions to stay in power forever; our recent past has been unpleasant.

This global pandemic has presented an opportunity for many African leaders to rehabilitate themselves with their people. Many Africans are now prepared to give their leaders another chance. African leaders must start putting African structures and institutions in place to serve their people. China has shown that you can lift 600 million people from extreme poverty within a generation. Africa has 1.3 billion people, and many are young, educated, and hungry for success. We have trillions of dollars worth of raw materials scattered around the continent. No continent is blessed with more natural materials and people potential than Africa.

How can vaccines manufactured cheaply in Africa be cheaper in Europe and the US than in Botswana? This is where political leadership comes in. Presidents Kagame, Nana Akufo-Addo and Ramaphosa must assume leadership immediately and invite African philanthropists, scientists, academics and billionaires to fashion concrete plans on how our continent should shield itself from future pandemics and shocks. This is the first step towards restoring self-pride.

For many in Africa, the lesson from this pandemic is painful as African governments have found it hard to protect their citizens. In contrast, the West has displayed its ruthlessness and selfishness. They might not plot to poison another Lumumba, but Western ways have not changed. It is called self-interest.  After this pandemic, it cannot be business as usual. We must seize the moment and build institutions that work for Africa.

By Isong Asu

Cameroon Concord News

Senior Political Researcher in London