Thousands of kilometers away, on the African continent, the Russian military campaign in Ukraine also causes victims, Macky Sall, head of state of Senegal and current president of the African Union (AU), explained to Vladimir Putin on Friday. Meeting in Sochi, Sall also advocated that Western sanctions against Russia do not affect the food sector, since the difficulties in exporting cereals and fertilizers would hit the population of the most vulnerable countries. Hours later, Putin said on television that he is willing to facilitate the export of Ukrainian grain through Russian-controlled ports.
"I have come to see you to ask you to be aware that our countries are victims of this crisis economically," Sall told his host at the start of the meeting.
Invited by the Kremlin, the Senegalese president wanted to mediate a solution to the blockade of cereal exports from Ukraine. The Slavic country is one of the world's leading exporters of wheat, corn and sunflower oil.
Sall assured that the tensions caused by the conflict have been aggravated by Western sanctions that affect Russia's logistics, commercial and financial chain. That is why he appealed for the food sector to be "out of sanctions." Because of them, "we do not have access to cereals from Russia, but above all to fertilizers," he pointed out.
Between 2018 and 2020, African countries imported 44% of their wheat from Russia and Ukraine. The FAO predicts that the crisis in Europe will cause a drop in wheat availability in six West African countries: Burkina Faso and Togo, which import 30% from Russia and Ukraine; and in Senegal, Liberia, Benin and Mauritania (more than 50%). The price of wheat has increased by 45%, according to the African Development Bank.
Putin did not address the food crisis in the public part of their meeting. He did so hours later in an interview on Russian television. In it, he accused the West of creating the current food crisis with “wrong” economic and energy decisions long before he started the military operation in Ukraine. He further denied that Moscow is preventing Ukrainian ports from exporting grain.
Russia maintains that it is the mines placed by Ukraine that prevent it and asks that they be removed. Putin stated that Russia will not take advantage of this circumstance to launch any attack from the sea. He also assured that he would be willing to facilitate the export of Ukrainian grain and guarantee the safety of ships from ports under Russian control.
