AfDB President, Adesina, criticises labels ban on African nations over Omicron variant as ‘unfair, discriminatory’

The President of the African Development Bank (AfDB) Dr Akinwumi Adesina, on Monday, accused Western countries of unfairness and discrimination.

This was in the wake of the travel ban on some African countries in the wake of the discovery of the Omicron COVID-19 variant

According to the former Minister of Agriculture, the travel bans are “very unfair, non-scientific and discriminatory”.

Adesina, who said this through his verified Twitter handle @akin_adesina, urged the western countries to lift the travel ban on the African countries

He also queried why the 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.

READ ALSO: Nigerian govt says Britain’s ban over omicron variant discriminatory, science-driven

“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.

Ripples Nigeria had reported that many developed countries had implemented travel restrictions against African countries with no records of the variant.

However, stakeholders opined 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 had since then been found in countries across the globe from Scotland to Canada.

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