The United States is signing bilateral health deals with African countries. By the end of February 2026, deals worth US$19.8 billion had been signed in new health funding. Of this amount, the US has committed US$12.2 billion and African countries US$7.5 billion.
Eighteen African countries have signed these deals. They are Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sierra Leone and Uganda.
The Conversation Africa asked virology professor Oyewale Tomori, a former World Health Organization regional virologist, how African countries should have responded to this US initiative.
