The African Union voiced disappointment Wednesday with President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw the United States from the World Health Organisation, urging his administration to reconsider.
Just hours after taking office on Monday, Trump signed an executive order urging the US to withdraw from the UN organisation, threatening to defund global health efforts.
African Union Commission Chairman Moussa Faki Mahamat said in a statement that he was “dismayed to learn of the US government’s announcement to withdraw” from the Geneva-based WHO.
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Washington is by far the organization’s largest financial contributor, and the pullout comes as Africa faces a number of health crises, including recent outbreaks of mpox and the Marburg virus.
“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 stated that Washington was an early sponsor of the Africa CDC, the African Union’s health watchdog, which collaborates with the WHO to combat current and emerging pandemics.
Trump has often lambasted the WHO’s handling of the Covid-19 outbreak, claiming prior to his inauguration that “World Health ripped us off.”
During Trump’s first term, the United States was in the process of withdrawing from the WHO, but Joe Biden reversed the decision.
Tom Frieden, a former US senior health official, stated 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 concerns increase about the pandemic potential of a bird flu outbreak that infected hundreds and claimed the first human life in the United States earlier this month.
Since late 2021, WHO member states have been discussing the world’s first treaty on tackling future pandemics, which will now proceed without the United States.
