São Tomé and Príncipe, Guinea-Bissau and Cabo Verde last week became the first Portuguese-speaking African Countries to receive aid from the Ali-Baba foundation, owned by Chinese billionaire Jack ma, to support efforts to fight the Covid-19 pandemic.

The national director for health of Cabo Verde, Artur Correia, said that on 21 March 100,000 masks, 20,000 rapid tests and 1,000 protective suits and 1,000 facemasks had arrived in the country.

Via social media, the Cape Verdean prime minister, Ulisses Correia e Silva, thanked, “Mr. Jack Ma and his foundation for this great gesture,” at a time when the country has six positive cases of coronavirus.

Also on 27 March, the Guinea-Bissau authorities announced they had received the materials donated by Jack Ma’s foundation – 20,000 test kits, 100,000 masks, 1,000 sets of protective clothing and 1,100 protective shields.

The aid to São Tomé and Príncipe arrived in the last few days on an aircraft hired by the African Union, which was authorised to land at the airport in the capital on 25 March.

An official statement said that the aircraft was carrying, “health kits, gloves, masks, tests, among other things, as a gift from the Ali-Baba Foundation, as part of the support by this institution to African countries.”

Another flight by DHL was planned for the same day carrying “various materials to prevent and combat Covid-19, as part of cooperation with the World Health Organisation,” the statement said.

Jack Ma pledged to send 1.1 million tests, 6 million protective masks and 60,000 scrub coats and visors, which arrived in Ethiopia, Rwanda and other countries last week.

Abiy Ahmed, the president of Ethiopia, which hosts the African Union, will be responsible for distributing the materials to other African countries.

The Chinese ambassador to São Tomé and Príncipe, Wang Wei, on delivering the equipment to Ayres de Menezes Central Hospital, noted the contribution from Chinese civil society, in this case from billionaire Jack Ma.

The humanitarian aid delivered by the Chinese ambassador to the central hospital included medication, including antibiotics, protective equipment, ventilators and defibrillators.

“We will continue to increase support to Africa, including São Tomé and Príncipe to fight this disease,” Wang Wei said. (macauhub)