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Senegalese President Macky Sall, who also chairs the African Union, met his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Sochi on Friday. Fearing a food crisis, he asked her to “be aware” that African countries are “victims” of the war in Ukraine.
The president of the African Union and of Senegal, Macky Sall, asked his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, on Friday, June 3, to “become aware” that African countries are “victims” of the conflict in Ukraine, in a context of fear of a global food crisis.
“I have come to see you to ask you to realize that our countries … are victims of this crisis at the economic level,” he said at the start of their meeting in Sochi, in southern Russia.
The UN fears “a hurricane of famine”, mainly in African countries that import more than half of their wheat from Ukraine or Russia, especially since no more ships can leave Ukrainian ports because of the conflict.
Macky Sall reminded Vladimir Putin that African states are suffering the consequences of the Russian offensive against Ukraine, while “the majority of African countries avoided condemning Russia” in two UN votes, and that together with “Asia, Middle East Middle and Latin America, a large part of humanity” preferred to stay out of the conflict.
Russian grain and fertilizer exports come to a standstill
Macky Sall pointed out that the food tensions caused by the conflict have been aggravated by Western sanctions that affect Russia’s logistics, trade and financial chain.
For this reason, he asked that the food sector remain “outside the sanctions” imposed by the West in retaliation for the Russian military offensive.
“The sanctions against Russia have made it more serious, we no longer have access to cereals from Russia, but above all to fertilizers,” said the Senegalese president.
“This really creates serious threats to the food security of the continent,” he said.
Vladimir Putin, for his part, did not address this issue in the public part of the meeting.
He highlighted the “support” of the Russian Federation to African countries “in the struggle against colonization” and praised the development of Russian-African relations.
Fear of a famine crisis
Macky Sall is in Russia amid fears of a global food crisis, as the Russian offensive in Ukraine has crippled food exports from the two agricultural giants.
This has caused grain and oil prices to rise, with prices exceeding those seen in the midst of the 2011 Arab Spring and those of the 2008 food riots.
Earlier, the Kremlin said that Vladimir Putin wanted to use the meeting to “give a full explanation of his point of view on the Ukrainian grain situation.”
According to him, only Ukraine and the West are responsible for the emerging food crisis.
*With AFP; adapted from its French version
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