All 54 countries on the continent have been affected by the highly infectious COVID 19, with over 1.1 million cases and and 27,000 deaths according to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.
There have been allegations of corruption scandals involving personal protective equipment in Africa such as in Zimbabwe, Kenya and South Africa.
The director general of the World Health Organisation, Dr. Tedros Adhanom, labelled cases related to COVID 19 corruption as murder.
“Corruption related to PPE… for me it’s actually murder. Because if health workers work without PPE, we’re risking their lives. And that also risks the lives of the people they serve”, stressed Dr Ghebreyesus.
South Africa, the hardest hit by COVID-19, with more than 600,000 cases and at least 2,500 deaths is investigating government departments for corruption over irregularities regarding coronavirus.
In Zimbabwe, the ex-Minister of Health was arrested and eventually sacked over misappropriation of funds for COVID 19.
According to the WHO, the most affected countries regarding graft are Nigeria with over 51,905 cases, Ghana: 43,325 cases, followed by Algeria: 41,068 cases.
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