ADDIS ABABA: The African Union voiced disappointment Wednesday with President Donald Trump’s decision to remove the United States from the World Health Organisation, urging his administration to rethink. Just hours after taking office on Monday, Trump signed an executive order urging the US to withdraw from the UN organisation, threatening to defund global health efforts.
African Union Commission Chairman Moussa Faki Mahamat said in a statement that he was “dismayed to learn of the US government’s announcement to withdraw” from the Geneva-based WHO. Washington is the organization’s largest financial contributor, and the exit comes as Africa faces a number of health problems, including recent outbreaks of mpox and Marburg viruses.
“Now more than ever, the world depends on WHO to carry out its mandate to ensure global public health security as a shared common good,” Moussa Faki stated. He went on to hope “the US government will reconsider its decision.”
He stated that Washington was an early sponsor of the Africa CDC, the African Union’s health watchdog, which collaborates with the WHO to combat current and emerging pandemics.
Trump has often criticised the WHO’s handling of the Covid-19 outbreak, claiming prior to his inauguration that “World Health ripped us off.” During Trump’s first term, the United States was in the process of withdrawing from the WHO, but Joe Biden reversed the decision.
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