Former prime minister Gordon Brown is urging world leaders to convene an emergency summit to tackle the “scandal” over a lack of global coronavirus vaccines.
He called on US President Joe Biden, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and this year’s chair of the G20, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, to take action in advance of the September United Nations General Assembly amid rising numbers of deaths among Africans.
According to Mr Brown, Africa, which has only fully vaccinated 1.9 per cent of its population, has been forced to export millions of lifesaving Covid vaccines to Europe, which has fully vaccinated more than 50 per cent.
He said this is “shocking, unfair and bordering on the neo-colonial”, at the very moment Africa is facing its deadliest surge in infections.
The hold-up in African vaccinations means that 90 per cent of African countries will miss their September target of vaccinating 10 per cent of their citizens, Mr Brown said.
The summit must address vaccine exports and the under-financing of the international Covax facility designed to send two billion vaccines to poor countries this year, he urged.