‘Worthy Friend’ AFRICOM Donates Medical Supplies to Ghana Armed Forces

ADF STAFF

U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) donated about $75,000 in medical supplies to Ghana as the country continues to battle the spread of COVID-19.

The shipment included 10,000 face masks, 1,600 hospital gowns, 2,000 liters of denatured alcohol, 3,000 liters of sodium hypochlorite, 20 glucometers, 200 glucometer strips and 14 pulse oximeters.

AFRICOM delivered the supplies at a critical time — more than 2,000 Ghanaian health care workers have been infected with COVID-19. Equipment and supplies are so limited that health care workers in some of the country’s COVID-19 treatment facilities are forced to reuse masks and other personal protective equipment (PPE), according to a Deutsche Welle report.

Lt. Gen. Obed Boamah Akwa, Ghana’s chief of the Defence Staff, expressed gratitude for the donation to Ghana Armed Forces (GAF).

“This generous gesture by the U.S. Embassy and AFRICOM is very timely in the midst of the pandemic in which we find ourselves. It is in times of crisis that you know who your true friends are,” Akwa said in a news release. “The United States has proven to be a worthy friend of Ghana, and in particular the Ghana Armed Forces, during this … pandemic.”

Workers later delivered the supplies to Kumasi South Regional Hospital and Effia Nkwanta Regional Hospital. Angela Durowaa Frempong, clinical care coordinator at Kumasi South, thanked the U.S., noting that international flights recently had resumed at Kotoka International Airport.

“We know you are facing your own struggles with coronavirus and to be able to give to people in times of your need, it goes to show how big a heart that you have for others, and we really appreciate it,” Frempong said in a story on ghananewscenter.com. “We promise you, we’ll put to good use what you’ve given us [at] the hospital, for the patients we will continue to have.”

Frempong added: “The borders are opened so we don’t know what’s going to happen, and so we’re always on alert waiting to receive whenever we’re told to.”

According to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, COVID-19 has sickened nearly 45,800 Ghanaians, including more than 2,000 medical workers, and killed nearly 300, as of September 17. The majority of cases are in and around Accra. Ghanaian Health Minister Kwaku Agyemang-Manu is among those who have recovered from the virus.

The U.S. has continuously supported Ghana since the pandemic began. In February, the U.S. donated medical supplies and two state-of-the-art level II field hospitals to GAF. As COVID-19 cases surged in June, the U.S. delivered a cache of medical supplies to the West African nation. In August, the American government donated medical supplies and PPE to a GAF-operated COVID-19 treatment center in Accra.

To bolster Ghana’s COVID-19 response, AFRICOM also has conducted tactical combat casualty care training, medical readiness exercises and conferences focused on pandemic response.

“The United States is leading the world in providing critical international assistance as, together, we battle this global pandemic,” U.S. Ambassador to Ghana Stephanie Sullivan said in a news release. “The GAF continues to play a leading role, along with the Ministry of Health, in responding to the pandemic here in Ghana.”