UK to Fund 20 Mln Pound for AU COVID-19 Response

Addis Ababa, May 20/2020( ENA) The United Kingdom on Tuesday announced a 20 million pound pledge to help the African Union’s ‘new Covid-19 Response Fund’ in bid to tackle the spread of the virus across the continent.

In a press release sent by the British Embassy in Addis Ababa, the fund is expected to support African leaders and technical experts to slow the spread of COVID-19 and save lives in Africa and beyond.

It will also tackle the pandemic by recruiting African health experts, strengthening global tracking of the pandemic, combating potentially harmful misinformation, providing specialist COVID-19 training for health workers and making information about the virus more accessible to the public.

This makes the UK the largest national donor to the fund, which was announced by Cyril Ramaphosa, Chairperson of the African Union (AU) and President of the Republic of South Africa last month.

Announcing the funding, International Development Secretary, Anne-Marie Trevelyan said “as the UK faces its biggest peacetime challenge in tackling Coronavirus, it has never been more important to work with our partners in Africa to fight the disease.”

“No one is safe until we are all safe and this new funding and support for African leadership will help protect us all - in the UK, Africa and around the world-from further spread of the virus,” she added.

The new support for the African Union comes after the UK has already pledged over 900 million US dollars to the international fight against Coronavirus.