HANGZHOU, March 17 (Xinhua) -- The Jack Ma Foundation and Alibaba Foundation will donate medical supplies including testing kits, masks and protective suits to 54 African countries to assist their prevention and control of COVID-19.

According to the announcement, which was made known by Jack Ma at his personal Weibo account Monday, each of the 54 African nations will receive 20,000 testing kits, 100,000 masks and 1,000 medical use protective suits and face shields.

The donated materials will be first delivered to Addis Ababa, capital of Ethiopia. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali of Ethiopia will take the lead in managing the logistics and onward distribution of the supplies to the African countries.

The donation to African nations is the latest in a series of initiatives by the Jack Ma Foundation and Alibaba Foundation to support the world's efforts to fight the pandemic. Their prior donation recipients included Japan, the Republic of Korea, the United States, Italy and Spain.

The twin foundations have also announced plans to work with medical institutions in Africa to provide online training materials for COVID-19 clinical treatment.

In a Twitter post, Jack Ma, founder of global technology company Alibaba Group, thanked the Ethiopian government and Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali for helping deal with the donation logistics.

"Ensuring COVID-19 preparedness in Africa to mitigate health disasters is critical," Abiy Ahmed Ali said in a Twitter post. "Great appreciation to Jack Ma for partnering with Ethiopia to distribute 10-20k corona testing kits per country."

He said the material support coupled with enhanced knowledge is key to the COVID-19 containment.

Collaboration and partnership with local governments and stakeholders in the framework of the Alibaba-led Electronic World Trade Platform (eWTP) is crucial in this relief effort.

The support of the Rwanda Development Board and the close cooperation with the Rwanda Biomedical Center are playing a vital role in enabling rapid response and delivery of donated medical supplies.

Ethiopia is the second African country to join the eWTP in 2019, aiming to serve as a gateway for Ethiopian products to China and new markets, as well as offering supports in smart logistics and fulfillment and talent training.