\n Rwanda has been selected as the pilot country, building on its growing reputation as a technology and innovation hub on the continent. Horizon1000 aims to support up to 1,000 primary healthcare clinics and their surrounding communities across several African countries by 2028.\n <\/p>\n
\n According to the Gates Foundation, the project will focus on clinical decision support, disease surveillance, and improving administrative efficiency in healthcare delivery.\n <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n In a blog post announcing the programme, Bill Gates described artificial intelligence as \u201ca potential turning point for health delivery in low-income settings.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n He added that in countries facing acute shortages of health workers and weak infrastructure, AI could \u201chelp close long-standing gaps in care and improve outcomes at scale.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
Netizens react<\/p>\n
\n Despite these assurances, the announcement was met with fierce criticism on social media. An Instagram user, Galil Jamal, described the initiative as \u201cAfrica the human testing clinic,\u201d while another user, @_rsv_eileen, dismissed it as \u201cScam\u2026 Africa the new animal\/ human testing.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n Concerns about hidden motives were echoed by Nnana Leonard, a Nigerian commenter, who wrote, \u201cAfrica, be very careful… Nothing is free… Ask what he (They(Bill g)wants in return… Until we start fixing this things ourselves we can never be free.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n Letlhogonolo Vilakazi added a more ominous note, saying, \u201cThe enemy will come as an angel of light.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n Other users called for African self-reliance in healthcare. Gerald Uche wrote, \u201cGates, please suspend that…allow Africans to develop their medicine.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n Some reactions went further, with Patrick Odoemenam warning, \u201cThis is a trap for Africans pls y’all should wake up, they want to depopulate you,\u201d a sentiment echoed by Trevor Maseko and Louis Nutt, who alleged that Africa was being targeted for harmful experimentation.\n <\/p>\n
\n While many of these claims are unverified and rooted in fear rather than evidence, they reflect deep historical anxieties tied to colonialism, medical ethics, and power imbalances in global health.\n <\/p>\n
\n Whether Horizon1000 can overcome this scepticism will likely depend on transparency, local ownership, and clear, measurable benefits for African communities.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The programme, known as Horizon1000, is a $50 million partnership designed to help African countries deploy artificial intelligence…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":253514,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[163,521,85,46],"class_list":{"0":"post-253513","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-healthcare","10":"tag-il","11":"tag-israel"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253513","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=253513"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253513\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/253514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=253513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=253513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=253513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}