Africa weathers COVID-19 storm in 2020

It was just a question of time until Africa would fall prey to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Already seasoned by years of conflicts and diseases, the continent was relatively well-prepared to weather the coronavirus storm. Resilience, cooperation and innovation helped Africans survive and flatten the curve of the initial wave of the virus. But for how long?

In the early days of the pandemic, Soweto trains were packed with workers returning home, showing how the virus would spread. As the disease took hold in South Africa, long, snaking lines formed at testing stations in Johannesburg's Alexandra township and at sports fields in Pretoria and the first COVID-19 victims were laid to rest.  

Across the continent, virtually every country went into lockdowns that brought police and military to the streets to keep residents inside their homes. Scenes of panic erupted in Nairobi as food was distributed to the needy, violent riots shook the streets of Nigeria’s economic hub Lagos.  

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Train commuters hold on to the side of an overcrowded passenger train in Soweto, South Africa, Monday, March 16, 2020. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)

If some took advantage of the pandemic, such as South African officials who allegedly profited from corrupt deals to purchase medical supplies to fight the pandemic, life kept on going for two young Nigerian girls sporting designer sunglasses as they celebrated Eid al-Fitr. Amid the battle against COVID-19, Ethiopia launched an unprecedented crackdown on its Tigray region.  

No pandemic could stop children in Sierra Leone’s Kono district from playing for the camera, nor could it prevent a lone gravel biker from riding into the sunset on a cold winter day in South Africa’s Free State province.

Resilience. Innovation. Cooperation. Survival. This is Africa, the continent, in 2020.

A police officer holds a pistol during clashes with protesters near a burning tyre barricade in the Kariobangi slum of Nairobi, Kenya Friday, May 8, 2020. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga)

Residents from the Alexandra township in Johannesburg gather in a stadium to be tested for COVID-19 Wednesday, April 29, 2020. It was just a question of time until Africa would fall prey to the COVID-19 pandemic. Already seasoned by years of conflicts and diseases, the continent was relatively well-prepared to weather the coronavirus storm. Resilience, cooperation and innovation helped Africans survive and flatten the curve of the initial wave of the virus. But for how long? (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)

Children pose for a photo in Komao village, on the outskirts of Koidu, district of Kono, Sierra Leone, Sunday, Nov. 22, 2020. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

Marie poses for a portrait in Komao village outskirts of Koidu, district of Kono, Sierra Leone, Sunday, Nov. 22, 2020. The 16-year-old didn't want to get married, but when her now-husband proposed, she and her family were struggling with the economic situation. For that reason she decided to get married. "Now we are together, so if he asks me to get pregnant, I will accept that", she says. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

A farmer's daughter waves her shawl in the air to try to chase away swarms of desert locusts from her crops, in Katitika village, Kitui county, Kenya Friday, Jan. 24, 2020. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

Henry sits in a trash bin as he and other homeless people rest at the Caledonian stadium in downtown Pretoria, South Africa, Thursday April 2, 2020, after being rounded up by police in an effort to enforce a 21-day lockdown to control the spread of the coronavirus. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)

Residents desperate for a planned distribution of food for those suffering under Kenya's coronavirus-related movement restrictions push through a gate and create a stampede, causing police to fire tear gas at a district office in the Kibera slum of Nairobi, Friday, April 10, 2020. (AP Photo/Khalil Senosi)

Schoolchildren joke around and play at the Olympic Primary School in Kibera, one of the capital Nairobi's poorest areas, in Kenya Monday, Oct. 12, 2020. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga)

In this photo taken Thursday, April 30, 2020, mourners gather to bury an elderly man believed to have died of the coronavirus in Mogadishu, Somalia. Years of conflict, instability and poverty have left Somalia ill-equipped to handle a health crisis like the coronavirus pandemic. (AP Photo)

Kenyan children and men are photographed in front of a new mural painted this week showing an incident in 2016 when a Kenyan riot policeman repeatedly kicked a protester as he lay in the street, as a message about police brutality in Kenya and protests in the US following the death of George Floyd, in the Kibera slum, or informal settlement, of Nairobi, Kenya Tuesday, June 9, 2020. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga)

South African National Defense Forces patrol the Men's Hostel in the densely populated Alexandra township east of Johannesburg, March 28, 2020, enforcing a strict lockdown in an effort to control the spread of the coronavirus. It was just a question of time until Africa would fall prey to the COVID-19 pandemic. Already seasoned by years of conflicts and diseases, the continent was relatively well-prepared to weather the coronavirus storm. Resilience, cooperation and innovation helped Africans survive and flatten the curve of the initial wave of the virus. But for how long? (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)

A student, wearing a face mask and shield to protect against the spread of COVID-19, returns to the Melpark Primary School in Johannesburg, Monday Aug. 24, 2020. (AP Photo/Denis Farrell)

Supporters of the presidential candidate Kouadio Konan Bertin, dance over a sound truck during the final campaign rally in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, Thursday, Oct. 29, 2020. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

South African National Defense Forces patrol the Sjwetla informal settlement after pushing back residents into their homes, on the outskirts of the Alexandra township in Johannesburg, Monday, April 20, 2020. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)

Sibongile Zulu poses for a portrait inside her home in Johannesburg, South Africa, Tuesday, July 28, 2020. Zulu is HIV positive and couldn't get her full medication for two months due to a lack of stock in government pharmacies. (AP Photo/Bram Janssen)

A boy wears a mask as a preventative measure against the spread of the new coronavirus, as he navigates a flood of water mixed with garbage following heavy rains, in the Kibera slum, or informal settlement, of Nairobi, Kenya, Thursday, March 26, 2020. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga)

YE Africa Photos 2020

In this Aug. 5, 2020, file photo, fresh graves fill the Olifantsveil Cemetery outside Johannesburg, South Africa. It was just a question of time until Africa would fall prey to the COVID-19 pandemic. Already seasoned by years of conflicts and diseases, the continent was relatively well-prepared to weather the coronavirus storm. Resilience, cooperation and innovation helped Africans survive and flatten the curve of the initial wave of the virus. But for how long?(AP Photo/Jerome Delay)

This Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2020 photo provided by the French Army shows oil leaking from the MV Wakashio, a bulk carrier ship that ran aground on a coral reef off the southeast coast of Mauritius. (Gwendoline Defente/EMAE via AP)

Raymond Brian, center, a Ugandan refugee and a nonconforming gender person who also goes by the name of "Mother Nature" has his make-up done by fellow Ugandan refugees Kasaali Brian, left, and Chris Wasswa, right, at a house that serves as a shelter for them in Nairobi, Kenya, Thursday, June 11, 2020. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga)

Residents protest with the covered dead body of a man, who they claimed had been beaten by police for being outside during the dusk to dawn curfew, but which could not be independently verified, in the Mathare slum, or informal settlement, of Nairobi, Kenya Monday, May 4, 2020. Human rights groups have protested the police use of excessive force to enforce the curfew put in place to curb the spread of the new coronavirus. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga)

Ballet student Anthony Mmesoma Madu, center, dances in the street as fellow dancers look on in Lagos, Nigeria on Aug. 18, 2020. Cellphone video showing the 11-year-old dancing barefoot in the rain went viral on social media. Madu's practice dance session was so impressive that it earned him a ballet scholarship with the American Ballet Theater in the U.S. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba)

A woman wearing a face mask to prevent the spread of coronavirus walks past a mural of a mask-wearing Mona Lisa, in the Medina of Asilah, northern Morocco, Saturday, Sept. 19, 2020. The town is known for its well-preserved ramparts which were built by the Portuguese in the 15th century and is nowadays a hub for street art and cultural events. (AP Photo/Mosa'ab Elshamy)

A student takes notes inside a classroom at a school in Harare, Monday, Sept, 28, 2020. Zimbabwe schools have reopened in phases, but with smaller number of pupils,more teachers and other related measures to enable children to resume their education without the risk of a spike in COVID-19 infections. (AP Photo/Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi)

Irene Wanzila, 10, works breaking rocks with a hammer along with her younger brother, older sister and mother, who says she was left without a choice after she lost her cleaning job at a private school when coronavirus pandemic restrictions were imposed, at Kayole quarry in Nairobi, Kenya Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2020. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga)

Tigray refugees who fled the conflict in the Ethiopia's Tigray carry their furniture on the banks of the Tekeze River on the Sudan-Ethiopia border, in Hamdayet, eastern Sudan, Tuesday, Dec. 1, 2020. The elderly woman waits for her family with their two cows they brought with them at center. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty)

Tigray refugees who fled the conflict in the Ethiopia's Tigray ride a bus going to the Village 8 temporary shelter, near the Sudan-Ethiopia border, in Hamdayet, eastern Sudan, Tuesday, Dec. 1, 2020. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty)

Cyclists ride the gavel roads of the Free States outside Clarens, South Africa, Saturday Aug. 8, 2020. The Covid-19 pandemic has come into full force in Africa, where its most developed country, South Africa, is straining to cope and confirmed cases have surpassed a half-million, fifth in the world. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)

People demonstrate on the street to protest against police brutality, in Lagos, Nigeria, Sunday Oct. 18, 2020. Nigerian protests against police brutality continued Sunday for the eleventh day, with demonstrators fending off attacks from gangs suspected to be backed by the police, warnings from the Nigerian military, and a government order to stop because of COVID-19. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba)

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Text from AP News story, Africa weathers COVID-19 storm in 2020, by Jerome Delay.

  

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