Pretoria, April 18 (RHC)-- The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that 16,800 positive cases of COVID-19 and more than 850 deaths from the virus have already been recorded in Africa.

According to John Hopkins University and the African Center for Disease Control, South Africa has 2,506 cases and 34 deaths followed by Algeria with 2,160 cases and 336 deaths, while Cameroon has 855 confirmed cases with 17 deaths.  South Sudan, Sao Tome, and Principe, Burundi, and Mauritania remain countries with the lowest confirmed cases in the region.

Given this situation, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, expressed his support for the the African peoples and governments in the fight against COVID-19.  According to the leader of the global organization, this is a time of cooperation and solidarity in the face of the common enemy: the virus. China will send several health workers to different African regions to face the pandemic.

Because of the urgent health situation, 18 European and African leaders have called for urgent economic and health assistance to strengthen Africa's response to the coronavirus.  According to the request, only the total containment of the virus in that continent would guarantee the end of the pandemic.  "Only a global victory that fully includes Africa can end this pandemic,' say the signatories. 

Among the political figures and leaders making the petition is Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, as well as German Chancellor Angela Merkel; French President Emmanuel Macron and Italian President Giuseppe Conte.  On the African side, the Prime Minister of Ethiopia and the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize winner, Abiy Ahmed, and the presidents of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa, Egypt, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, and Kenya, Uhuru Kenyatta, stand out.