Omicron: Adesina slams travel ban on African countries

By Ese Williams

Dr Akinwumi Adesina, the President African Development Bank (AfDB) has said the travel ban on some African countries over Omicron,  the new COVID-19 variant  is “very unfair, non-scientific and discriminatory”.

Adesina condemned the ban on Twitter and urged the western countries to lift it.

He queried why travel ban was not placed on  non-African countries where Omicron had also been found.

” Why single out African countries, singling out African countries is very unfair, nonscientific and discriminatory.

“Global vaccines and travel apartheid against Africa are endangering lives, hurting economies, lives, jobs and livelihoods from a pandemic Africa did not cause.

” End the apartheid. Respect Africa,” Adesina said.

In response to reports of the newly detected coronavirus variant in South Africa, many developed countries shut their doors against southern African countries, including some with no records of the variant.

African leaders had been pushing back on the travel bans imposed by the Western nations.

They contended that the result of South Africa’s openness in sharing news of the variant had led to what they see as punitive measures.

The variant which was detected last week in Botswana and South Africa had since then been found in countries across the globe from Scotland to Canada.