Congo and US agree to $1.2 billion health partnership

KINSHASA, Congo (AP) — The United States and Congo signed a $1.2 billion health partnership Thursday, the two countries’ governments said in a joint statement.

The Department of State said it will provide up to $900 million over the next five years to support the Central African country to fight HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, maternal and child mortality, and other infectious diseases. Congo’s government will commit to increasing its own domestic health expenditures by $300 million over the same period, according to the statement.

It is the latest agreement the U.S. has entered with more than a dozen African countries, many of them hit by U.S. aid cuts, including Congo.

U.S. aid cuts have crippled health systems across the developing world, including in Africa, where many countries relied on the funding for crucial programs, including those responding to outbreaks of disease.

The State Department has signed 19 bilateral global health partnerships with African countries as of Thursday.

The Trump administration says the new “America First” global health funding agreements are meant to increase self-sufficiency and eliminate what it calls ideological priorities and waste in international assistance. The deals replace a patchwork of previous health agreements under the now-dismantled United States Agency for International Development.

Analysts say the new approach to global health aligns with U.S. President Donald Trump’s pattern of dealing with other nations transactionally, using direct talks with foreign governments to promote his agenda abroad.

The announcement of the partnership between the U.S. and Congo comes on the same day the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention raised concerns about provisions in some agreements that require countries to share data with Washington on viruses that could trigger outbreaks within their borders as a condition for receiving funding.

“There are huge concerns regarding data, regarding pathogen sharing,” Africa CDC director-general Dr. Jean Kaseya told reporters.

On Wednesday, negotiations on a health funding deal between the U.S. and Zimbabwe collapsed after the African nation rejected a requirement to share sensitive health data.

It is unclear whether such a requirement is also part of the health partnership between the U.S. and Congo.

—-

Banchereau reported from Dakar, Senegal. Associated Press reporter Justin Kabumba in Goma, Congo contributed to this report.