A Chinese medical expert is welcomed by locals upon her arrival in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, April 16, 2020. (Xinhua)
COOPERATION ESSENTIAL
Mafa Sejanamane, permanent representative of Lesotho to the AU and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), said that China's support is "essential" to Africa's fight against COVID-19.
"We are pleased that the Chinese people and government are on the forefront of this particular struggle. With the cooperation of all our international partners, we will be able to triumph," said Sejanamane, who is also Lesotho's ambassador to Ethiopia.
According to the Africa CDC, the death toll from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic on the African continent passed 1,300 as the number of confirmed cases rose to 27,852 as of Friday afternoon.
"The global community should forge strong partnership if the world has to overcome the crisis," Costantinos Bt. Costantinos, who served as an economic advisor to the AU and the UNECA, told Xinhua on Friday.
Noting that both the Chinese government and Chinese enterprises have in recent weeks continued sending shipments of medical supplies to hard-hit countries across Africa, Costantinos said China has been "rallying for global coordination in managing the coronavirus outbreak" and "striving to take the lead against the coronavirus crisis."
"COVID-19 is a global threat, affecting each and every inhabitant of planet earth, with zero regard for ethnicity, social status, wealth or any other of the various strata which have been contrived, over centuries, to set us apart from each other," said Sibusiso Moyo, Zimbabwe's minister of foreign affairs and international trade.
"Misguided assumptions with regard to the origin and the consequent attribution of blame take us nowhere, render a difficult situation even more challenging and impact negatively relations between and amongst brotherly nations and peoples," he said.
"Let us not, therefore, allow ourselves to be side-tracked or deflected from the main task at hand by engaging in any form of stigmatization, accusation or blame," said Moyo.
"Blame is not the answer. The answer is organizations, countries, institutions, and governments bringing their resources together to team up to provide these kinds of medical supplies and medical equipment for the protection of the people. So, this is a very good example," said CEO of Ethiopian Airlines Tewolde Gebremariam, when commenting on China's contribution to Africa.
