This archive report was first published on 21 June 2020.
US Charge d'Affaires to Tanzania Dr Inmi Patterson has left the country, ending her tour of duty, in a move that comes a month after the US Embassy issued a travel advisory warning of Tanzania's alarming Covid-19 situation.
Published on June 21, 2020, Dr Patterson's farewell message, delivered in Kiswahili, expressed her gratitude to Tanzanians for the opportunity to know the country better during her tenure.
"I have learnt that although we (Tanzanians and Americans) carry different passports, we share the same dream and that we are all human beings," she said in her farewell speech.
Dr Patterson's departure comes after Tanzania's Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned her in response to the US Embassy's travel advisory, which stated that the Tanzanian government did not provide enough updates on the coronavirus situation and that the country's hospitals were overwhelmed.
The US Embassy in Dar es Salaam had refuted unconfirmed news that Dr Patterson had left the country just hours before her farewell message was posted on social media.
However, the farewell message was accompanied by a post detailing the financial assistance the US has extended to Tanzania in the past 20 years, with a total of $5.3 million donated to the health sector in the past few months.
