Covid-19 postpones Commonwealth meeting

The Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (Chogm) due to be held in Rwanda’s capital, Kigali, in June, has been called off due to concerns over the coronavirus.

The summit was one of the last major international events still scheduled to go ahead as planned, but its fate was almost certainly sealed when the lockdown in Rwanda was extended until early May last week.

The Commonwealth Secretariat released a statement on Tuesday evening, explaining that as “a result of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, it is necessary to postpone the 26th Chogm”.

President Paul Kagame acknowledged that defeating the virus should be the first priority of every nation but added that Rwanda was looking forward to “welcoming the Commonwealth family” to Kigali “once the pandemic has been defeated”.

A new date for the summit has not yet been announced.

This would have been the first time a country with no former colonial ties to Britain would have hosted the event after Rwanda, a former Belgian colony, joined the Commonwealth in 2009.

[Photo: The Royal Family]