Amidst a deepening public health crisis, Angolan President and current African Union Chairperson, João Lourenço, has called on June 4 for urgent action to establish Africa-based vaccine production, following a cholera outbreak that has claimed more than 700 lives in Angola alone this year.
Addressing a virtual Summit with fellow African leaders and World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Lourenço underscored the fragility of the continent’s health systems and the risks posed by overreliance on external medical imports.
“Our health sovereignty is compromised when over 90% of vaccines, medicines, and diagnostics are imported,” Lourenço said, as cited in a statement shared on social media. He warned that such dependence impedes timely responses to disease outbreaks and exposes the continent to geopolitical and supply chain disruptions. The African Centre for Disease Control (Africa CDC) had similarly highlighted the continent’s vulnerability in an April report, pointing to disasters during COVID-19 and more recent outbreaks of Ebola, Marburg, and mpox as cautionary examples.
The continent is grappling with a wave of cholera infections, with Sudan, South Sudan, DR Congo, and Angola among the worst hit. Angola alone had registered 24,530 cases and 718 deaths as of June 2. The situation is especially dire in war-torn Sudan, where 172 deaths were reported in a single week. As public health emergencies surge—rising from 152 in 2022 to 213 in 2024—health authorities and heads of state are uniting around a shared resolve: to build resilient, self-sufficient healthcare systems anchored in local vaccine manufacturing and regional preparedness.