The African Union Commission (AU) says the travel restrictions imposed by some western on some African countries due to the emergence of the Omicron COVID-19 variant in the continent is unjust.
AU’s Chairperson, Moussa Mahamat, said this during a news conference at the UN headquarters in New York on Wednesday.
The United States, the United Kingdom, and the European Union have placed travel bans on 10 African countries, including Nigeria, Egypt, Malawi, South Africa, Eswatini, Lesotho, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, and Namibia, over the discovery of the variant in the continent.
World Health Organisation (WHO) had labelled Omicron a “variant of concern” after being detected by South African authorities.
Subsequently, several countries in the developed world imposed a travel ban on South Africa and its neighboring countries.
Mahamat described travel ban as a “stigmatization” that could not be justified scientifically or logically.
“They are condemning a country (South Africa) for having been transparent because its experts have worked tirelessly to inform the international community of the emergence of new variants,” he said.
“It hasn’t been scientifically proven that these types of measures are able to deal with this type of issue. It’s clearly, as you say, an expression rather of a form of injustice. It’s immoral to condemn Africa in that way.
“We are a world, a global world and when facing an enemy like the virus, like COVID-19, humankind as a whole must go hand in hand to fight the virus because a man’s life is man’s life.
“Our message to the world as a whole is that we need to keep a cool head. We need to follow the well-being of humankind as a whole.
“We need to genuinely demonstrate greater solidarity and justice. That’s the very least we can ask for, namely from our leaders, our political and social leaders.”
