According some reports gathered by Ghanawish.com from some media houses in Adisa Ababa ,The Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Abiy Ahmed Ali has vowed to donate his one month salary towards the fight against the spread of coronavirus in that Horn of Africa country/
Abiy made announcement on his twitter page Wednesday morning after launching a National Resource Mobilisation Committee, tasked with coordinating efforts of gathering financial and non-financial materials for #COVID-19 emergency preparedness. “As part of the efforts of the National #COVID-19 resource mobilization committee set up today, I have vowed to give my one month salary to the initiative”, the PM tweeted.
Ethiopia’s confirmed cases as at Wednesday morning stands at 12, with no record of deaths; still one of the least hit countries in Africa, with South Africa recording as much as 700 cases.
But Ahmed Ahmed Ali, who was awarded the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to “”achieve peace and international cooperation”, after brokering a peace deal that ended a 20-year border war with Eritrea, says of the COVID 19 pandemic that, “coming together as a nation in such trying times and caring for our most vulnerable is a national duty and responsibility”.
On Tuesday, Abiy’s government wrote to the G20, a three-point plan on how those countries can help Africa cope with the coronavirus pandemic.
He proposes a $150 billion aid package; what he calls Africa Global COVID-19 Emergency Financing Package; he also wants the G20 to provide support to the World Health Organization (WHO) and Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to strengthen public health delivery and emergency preparedness on the continent.
He reminds world leaders in his third point that “a global approach and strategy” is required to stem the coronavirus pandemic and therefore request the G20 countries to implement debt reduction and restructuring plans for Africa.
African leaders are demonstrating their preparedness and resolve to fighting and conquering COVID 19, but the commitment of personal funds had not been reported until Abiy decided to do so.
