Star Metro - African Union 'dismayed' US withdrawing from WHO

Just hours after taking office on Monday, Trump signed an executive order directing the US to withdraw from the UN agency, which threatens to leave global health initiatives short of funding.

African Union Commission Chairman Moussa Faki Mahamat said in a statement he was "dismayed to learn of the US government's announcement to withdraw" from the Geneva-based WHO.

Washington is easily the biggest financial contributor to the organisation and the pullout comes as Africa faces a range of health crises, 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 said, adding he hopes "the US government will reconsider its decision".

He said Washington was an early supporter of the Africa CDC, the African Union's health watchdog which works with the WHO to counter present and emerging pandemics.

Trump has repeatedly criticised the WHO over its handling of the Covid-19 pandemic and said prior to his inauguration that "World Health ripped us off."

The United States was in the process of withdrawing from the WHO during Trump's first term, but the move was reversed under Joe Biden.

Tom Frieden, a former US senior health official, wrote on X that the withdrawal "weakens America's influence, increases the risk of a deadly pandemic, and makes all of us less safe."

It comes as fears grow of the pandemic potential of a bird flu outbreak, which has infected dozens and claimed its first human life in the United States earlier this month.

WHO member states have been negotiating the world's first treaty on handling future pandemics since late 2021 -- negotiations now set to proceed without the US.

A.Hill--SMC