Strengthening Genomic Sovereignty in Africa: The African Bioinformatics Center for Omics (ABCOMICS) Project

Africa boasts immense human, animal, vegetal, and microbial diversity. While several communicable and non-communicable diseases result from the interactions between these entities and their molecular changes, they are little explored by local researchers and clinicians to understand and predict the rise and trajectory of diseases of major concern, including neglected tropical diseases. A strong genomic approach to overcoming this gap will rely on an independent and well-established Bioinformatics infrastructure designed to address the needs of local biomedical, climate, and environmental research. In this article, we present how the African Bioinformatics Center for Omics (ABCOMICS), an initiative that integrates Bioinformatics, AI, and data science to promote research autonomy and training, will contribute to addressing the bioinformaticsrelated challenges in West Africa. A core objective of the initiative is to build an African genomic data repository that supports local research and collaboration with existing initiatives in Africa and other parts of the world. Keywords : Genomic sovereignty, African genomic database, Bioinformatics infrastructure, Data governance, INSDC, Capacity building, Genomic surveillance, Artificial intelligence, FAIR data, Global health equity