Key African states stressed the need for grain imports to tackle food insecurity as Russian President Vladimir Putin prepares to discuss with the continent’s leaders the fate of a deal.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said a delegation of African leaders is due to visit both Ukraine and Russia from this weekend in a push to end Russia’s 16-month long war.
Earlier on Tuesday, Putin said Russia was considering quitting the Black Sea grain initiative – brokered by the United Nations and Turkey in July 2022 because its own grain and fertiliser shipments still face obstacles.
However, Ramaphosa believes Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy are aligned with him on the “importance of grain deliveries to Africa for the alleviation of food insecurity”, said Ramaphosa’s spokesperson Vincent Magwenya.
“We are therefore not aware of any threats to pull out of the grain deal,” Magwenya added.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday that Moscow had not yet made a decision on withdrawing.
Russia has issued a list of demands it wants met, including the resumption of its Black Sea ammonia exports and reconnection of the Russian Agricultural Bank to the SWIFT payment system.
While food and fertiliser exports do not fall under the West’s tough sanctions imposed on Russia over the war, Moscow says restrictions on payments, logistics and insurance create barriers.
Putin also complained that under the deal “almost nothing goes to African countries” and said Moscow is ready to supply grain for free to the world’s poorest countries.
The United Nations has long said the Black Sea grain deal is a commercial enterprise, but that it benefits poorer countries by helping lower food prices globally.
According to U.N. data more than 31 million tonnes of grain have been exported under the pact, with 43 per cent of that to developing countries.
It added that more than 625,000 tonnes of grain has been shipped by the U.N. World Food Programme for aid operations.
The Black Sea grain deal was initially brokered for 120 days.
Russia has agreed to extend it three times but warned on Wednesday that its “goodwill” cannot last forever.
Zambia’s Foreign Minister Stanley Kakubo said in a statement that the war in Ukraine and conflict in Sudan had “taken a devastating toll on African communities.
He said it resulted in the loss of life, food insecurity, due to the rising costs of grain and fertiliser.
“If it’s true that we would starve if that grain deal is disrupted, why is it that it’s the West crying more than us Africans? They are crying crocodile tears,” Uganda’s state minister for Foreign Affairs, Okello Oryem said.
He added that Uganda would have no qualms about accepting free grain from Russia. (Reuters/NAN)
