JOHANNESBURG (AP) — On a visit to South Africa, French President Emmanuel Macron has vowed his country will provide millions of COVID-19 vaccine doses to help African countries speed up their inoculation drives. Macron also pledged that France will help South Africa and other African countries to develop the capacity to produce their own vaccines to fight the pandemic. Macron met President Cyril Ramaphosa in the capital, Pretoria, and said he supports lifting the barriers preventing Africa from producing its own vaccines, but he said the immediate priority is to increase the supply of vaccines to Africa. He also announced France’s readiness to deploy military assistance to neighboring Mozambique to fight extremist insurgents in the northern part of that country.
