By John Ikani
President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan has announced that his country will send 15 million COVID-19 vaccine doses to Africa.
Erdogan made the announced on Saturday at a major summit of the continent’s leaders.
The Turkish president who observed that low vaccination rates were a blot on humanity, added that “It is disgraceful for humanity that only six per cent of Africa’s population has been vaccinated.”
“We are aware of the global injustice in accessing the Covid-19 vaccine and Africa’s unjust treatment,” Erdogan said.
“To contribute to the resolution of this issue, within our means, we plan to share 15 million vaccine doses in the period ahead,” he said.
Turkey is developing its vaccine, known as Turkovac, which is in the process of receiving emergency use approval.
It was not immediately clear from his remarks whether Turkey would first send some doses of the internationally approved vaccines it was currently using, including those developed by Pfizer-BioNTech.
