ADDIS ABABA, April 22 (Xinhua) -- The Ethiopian Airlines Group on Wednesday disclosed the completion of flight and delivery of the second round shipments of life-saving medical supplies donated by the China's Jack Ma Foundation to 54 African countries to support Africa's fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ethiopian Airlines expresses its compliments and the highest appreciation to the Jack Ma Foundation, Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, the World Food Programme and the Africa Center for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) for giving it the opportunity to serve Africa, during this unprecedented global health and economic crisis, the Ethiopian Airlines Group said in a statement issued on Wednesday.
The Ethiopian flag carrier also stressed that "as a truly and indigenous Pan African airline which has been serving Africa by Africans, there is nothing more pleasing for the 17,000 strong work force at Ethiopian Airlines than coming to the rescue of our African people specially in delivering lifesaving COVID-19 medical supplies."
Tewolde Gebremariam, CEO of Ethiopian Airlines Group, also described the initiative as "a special honour for the entire Ethiopian Airlines family to be selected as logistics partner and distribution hub for Africa by the Jack Ma Foundation, our Prime Minster, WFP and the African CDC."
"This project which is running its second round of shipment delivery showed the true African integration in line with the AU Vision 2063. It is a role model for what Africa can achieve in its quest for continental integration," Gebremariam said.
The Ethiopian national carrier had recently successfully delivered the first round of donation of Jack Ma Foundation and Alibaba Foundation to African countries.
Meanwhile, Jack Ma also on Monday announced that the third donation to Africa "will immediately be made" to the African Union and the Africa CDC.
According to the Africa CDC, the death toll from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic on the African continent reached 1,158 as the number of confirmed cases hit 23,505 as of Tuesday. Enditem
