Malawian government says travel bans on southern African countries not done in good faith

The Malawian government says that the travel ban that the United Kingdom, the United States, European Union and other countries have imposed on some southern African countries including South Africa and Malawi is tantamount to Afrophobia and not based on science.

This comes after South African scientists discovered the new and highly transmissible Omicron variant of the coronavirus.

Malawi’s Information Minister Gospel Kazako says that the bans were not decided in good faith.

“Those that are highly involved in the process of making these decisions, can’t even speak with one scientific voice. For example, the United Kingdom has banned 10 out of 16 countries in the SADC region, the United States has banned three out of 16 countries in the SADC region, and Canada has done eight out of 10 and Australia nine out of 16. So, one wonders how these decisions were made.”