A total of 29 African states, as well as the African Union respectively, have appealed to Russia for help controlling the spread of COVID-19.
Thus far, assistance has been provided to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (28,000 units of single-use laboratory equipment and over 8,000 units of personal protective equipment), Djibouti (over 20 medical units for various uses, tents and equipment to create two medical units), South Africa (50 sets of test kits) and Guinea (test kits for 6,600 studies). Methods of supplying medical equipment and materials to Guinea are being developed through RUSAL and Rospotrebnadzor.
Moreover, since the pandemic began, commodities have been shipped to the Comoro Islands (172 tonnes) and Madagascar (approx. 500 tonnes).
This year, an additional annual contribution is set to be made to the UN World Food Programme to the tune of USD 10 million (equally distributed among Burundi, Djibouti, Somalia, Sierra Leone and South Africa) as well as an allocation of USD 10 million to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) to control the locust infestation in East Africa (USD 3 million to Kenya, Uganda and Ethiopia respectively and 1 million to South Africa).
Priority areas of cooperation between Russia and African countries were discussed at the first Russia—Africa Summit and Economic Forum, which was held in Sochi in October 2019 and entitled ‘for peace, security and development’. A final declaration was adopted at the end of that historic event, which strengthened the new Mechanism for Dialogue Partnership, whose Secretariat will organize and hold the second high-level Russia—Africa assembly in 2022.
