The plan will be led by Africa but France has become involved in order to try to provoke a massive global response.
President Cyril Ramaphosa and French President Emmanuel Macron are leading an effort to win global support for a comprehensive action plan to help Africa cope with the coronavirus pandemic.
They are approaching the IMF, the World Bank, other international banks and national governments to support the plan, which includes considerable health support as well as debt relief and concessional loans to enable African governments to weather the economic impacts, which are expected to be large.
No dollar figure has been publicly put to the plan but it is "aligned" with the African Union's appeal to the international community on March 26 for a $100-billion package of measures, France's ambassador to South Africa, Aurélien Lechevallier, says. The AU itself has also said the plan aligns with its appeal. The ambassador suggested Ramaphosa would outline the details of the plan soon.
The coronavirus pandemic arrived in Africa later than in other regions but is gaining momentum. The AU announced on Monday that 9,457 people across Africa had tested positive for the virus infection in 51 countries, 442 had died and...
