First change: 06/03/2022 – 15:04
Senegalese President Macky Sall, who is also the head of the African Union, met his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Sochi on Friday. Fearing a food crisis, he asked him to “be aware” that African countries were “victims” of the war in Ukraine.
African Union and Senegal President Macky Sall on Friday, June 3 urged his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to “recognize” that African countries are “victims” of the conflict in Ukraine, in one The context of the fear of a global food crisis.
“I came to you to ask you to recognize that our countries … are victims of this crisis on an economic level,” he said at the start of their meeting in Sochi, in southern Russia.
The UN fears “a hunger storm,” especially in African countries that import more than half of their wheat from Ukraine or Russia, especially since the conflict has prevented ships from leaving Ukrainian ports.
Macky Sall reminded Vladimir Putin that African states are suffering the consequences of Russia’s offensive against Ukraine, while “the majority of African countries have avoided condemning Russia” in two UN polls, and that along with “Asia, the Middle East, the Middle and Latin America, “a large part of humanity” preferred to stay out of the conflict.
Russian grain and fertilizer exports ground to a halt
Macky Sall pointed out that food tensions caused by the conflict have been exacerbated by Western sanctions affecting Russia’s logistics, trade and financial chain.
For this reason, he demanded 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 even more serious, we no longer have access to grain from Russia, but mainly to fertilizers,” said the Senegalese President.
“This creates really serious threats to the food security of the continent,” he said.
For his part, Vladimir Putin did not address this issue in the public part of the meeting.
He highlighted the Russian Federation’s “support” for African countries “in the fight against colonization” and praised the development of Russian-African relations.
fear of famine
Macky Sall is amid fears of a global food crisis in Russia, as the Russian offensive in Ukraine has crippled food exports from the two agribusiness giants.
This has caused grain and oil prices to soar, surpassing those of the middle of the 2011 Arab Spring and the food riots of 2008.
The Kremlin had previously stated that Vladimir Putin wanted to use the meeting to “explain comprehensively his point of view on the Ukrainian grain situation”.
According to him, only Ukraine and the West are to blame for the looming food crisis.
*With AFP; adapted from its French version