In June this year, Human Rights Watch said the Covid-19 pandemic has exposed gaps in health services that require urgent attention in many African countries.
It said African governments should urgently address healthcare deficiencies to meet the demands of the Covid-19 pandemic and ongoing healthcare needs of their populations. They should act to ensure everyone’s right to health is in line with international human rights law, including the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.
“The current global health crisis from the spread of the novel coronavirus has brought to the fore the need for African Union (AU) member states to carefully analyse the current state of their healthcare infrastructure and make meaningful investments to improve access to quality health care.”
In April and May 2020, Human Rights Watch interviewed African health experts, including pathologists, epidemiologists, and public health officials. They said that inadequacies in resources are due to insufficient government investment in health, which in turn affects the ability of health workers to fulfill their duties, especially during the pandemic.
The health experts and representatives of human rights organizations interviewed said that a chronic lack of investment in healthcare infrastructure and equipment has made it harder for African nations to retain skilled healthcare workers, provide essential medicines, and reduce the mortality rates of perennial diseases like malaria.
We hope this is a lesson for Lesotho’s leaders. They should shift their focus from constant bickering and plots to overthrow each other, to devising ways to save the people from Covid-19
