African Union official and former Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga is the latest politician to deploy the language of war when it comes to talking about coronavirus.

Mr Odinga, who is the AU’s high representative on infrastructure, said the pandemic was like “a third world war without the bombs”.

“Even in the Second World War we did not have the extent of casualties that we have witnessed within a short period of time,” he told South Africa’s public broadcaster SABC.

“The effects are going to be far reaching to the continent.”

He warned that the continent will likely be left on its own in the post-coronavirus era.

“African countries will wake up to this reality that nobody is going to help them because everybody has been affected. Europe is on its knees, the US is crying, even China is crying.

“About 85% of Africa’s trade is with the external world and most of it is commodities which we are exporting. We now need to look internally into intra-Africa trade,” he said.

The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention has said 48,022 people have been infected with Covid-19 in Africa. That number includes 1,878 deaths and 16,019 recoveries.