Singling out African countries for travel restriction discriminatory, says AfDB

The President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Dr Akinwumi Adesina, has lamented on the travel restrictions placed on some African countries over the new Covid-19 Omicron variant, describing the action as very unfair, non-scientific and discriminatory.

Adesina raised questions over why the travel ban was not placed on non-African countries where Omicron had also been discovered but ended up singling out African countries.

This disclosure was made by Adesina through his verified Twitter handle @akin_adesina, where he urged the western countries to lift the travel ban on the African countries.

The AfDB boss said, “Why single out African countries, singling out African countries is very unfair, non-scientific and discriminatory.

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“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.’’

The new Omicron Covid-19 variant which was reported to have been first discovered in South Africa had been reported to have spread to some 38 countries including Nigeria.

Many developed countries have been placing travel bans on some African countries with no records of the variant following the detection of the Omicron variant in South Africa.

The WHO and African leaders have urged the Western countries to lift the travel ban placed on some countries within the continent.

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