The coronavirus epidemic has slowly descended to the south, gradually reaching all of Africa. Without aid, the continent where containment is difficult to impose risks becoming a reservoir for the virus. France has therefore decided to mobilize. On Wednesday April 8, French Minister of Foreign Affairs Jean-Yves Le Drian announced that France will devote nearly 1.2 billion euros to the fight against the spread of Covid-19 on the African continent.

>> Read: Coronavirus: Benin says it does not have "the means" to confine the population

"At the bilateral level, we will take part in this effort by redirecting a substantial part of our development aid to health and food issues for almost 1.2 billion euros", he declared before the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Assembly.

"The needs are immense", he underlined, according to the text of his speech, calling for strengthening "healthcare systems" in Africa as well as "detection and scientific research capacities by supporting African research".

Humanitarian airlift from Europe

The European Union, for its part, guaranteed Wednesday the granting of "more than 20 billion euros" to the most vulnerable countries in Africa and in the rest of the world to help them fight against the Covid-19 pandemic.

"We will no doubt have to consider organizing a humanitarian airlift from Europe to transport aid," added Jean-Yves Le Drian.

>> To read: Moussa Faki Mahamat: "Africa needs 100 to 150 billion dollars" in the face of the coronavirus

Paris will notably help the NGO Alima in Senegal, Guinea Conakry, Burkina Faso and the Central African Republic in the care of the sick, as well as Médecins du Monde at the Kinshasa hospital where patients in very poor condition are received serious.

The capacities of the Institut Pasteur laboratories will also be increased in Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Madagascar, Guinea Conakry and Senegal, the minister said.

With AFP

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