Baerbock promises support in the fight against diseases

Trip to Africa - Baerbock promises support in the fight against diseases

Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has promised Africa the support of Germany and the European Union in the fight against pandemics and other diseases. "Diseases know no national borders or continents - our solidarity must not either," said the Green politician on her visit to the East African country of Rwanda this Monday. Baerbock plans to attend an event in the capital Kigali at which the Mainz-based pharmaceutical company Biontech will present a centerpiece of its first production facility for mRNA vaccines in Africa.

Biontech plans to produce mRNA-based vaccines for the African continent at the Kigali site. A range of mRNA vaccines such as the Covid-19 vaccine could later be produced there and, if approved, potentially a range of other mRNA vaccines such as those against tuberculosis and malaria.

"The path to a fair international health architecture is not a short-distance race, but a team marathon," said Baerbock. That is why "Team Europe supports the goal of Africa's own vaccine production - from the concept to the needle".

Baerbock: First mRNA vaccine factory offers hope for millions

Today, only one in 100 vaccine doses administered in Africa is actually produced there, said Baerbock. By 2040, this figure should be 60 times higher. The EU Global Gateway project will make this possible with 1.2 billion euros by 2027 - 550 million euros of which will come from Germany. Africa's first mRNA vaccine factory in Rwanda is "not yet the finish line - but a real milestone and hope for millions".

The EU 's "Global Gateway" initiative plans to invest up to 300 billion euros in the infrastructure of emerging and developing countries over the next few years - also to secure more global influence for the EU. The project is intended to compete with China's "New Silk Road" project.

"No one is safe until everyone is safe" - when the Covid pandemic swept the globe, this became clear to the world, said Baerbock. It still hurts today that far too many people, especially in Africa, were at the mercy of the virus at the beginning of the pandemic and "that we as the international community literally could not deliver". In the case of other diseases such as malaria or tuberculosis, too, a single vaccination sometimes makes the difference between life and death. "However, fair and rapid access to life-saving vaccines must not depend on whether a child is born in Germany or Rwanda," emphasized Baerbock.

Union in favor of migration solution with Rwanda

Baerbock's talks with her Rwandan colleague Vincent Biruta are also likely to focus on the issue of migration, which is likely to play a major role in the German election campaigns over the next two years. The plan for Rwanda to take in migrants who have entered the UK irregularly on the basis of an agreement with the UK is controversial.

In the "Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung", Jens Spahn, deputy leader of the CDU parliamentary group, promoted the concept of third-country regulations combined with a quota solution for migration contained in the draft for the CDU's new basic principles program. Migrants "who reach the EU irregularly" should be brought to Ghana, Rwanda or Eastern European non-EU countries. "If we do this consistently for four, six, eight weeks, then the numbers will drop dramatically," said the CDU politician.

Commemoration of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi

In Kigali, Baerbock also wanted to commemorate the victims of the genocide against the Tutsi in 1994 and lay a wreath at the memorial site for the victims. At that time, militias of the Hutu majority in Rwanda murdered at least 800,000 people, mainly members of the Tutsi minority, in a massacre that lasted around 100 days. Hundreds of thousands were victims of sexual violence.

Rwanda, one of the smallest countries in Africa in terms of area, barely larger than its German partner region Rhineland-Palatinate, is already often a model of development for an entire continent, Baerbock praised - with strong economic growth, as a pioneer in climate and environmental protection or in the social participation of women. The wounds of the past should also heal for all Rwandans. "The shared memory of the whole world today is a perpetual mandate to never allow this to happen again," she added.

With a population of around 14 million, Rwanda is the most densely populated country in Africa. Human rights organizations criticize the persecution of opposition figures and critical journalists.