Published on : 01/06/2022 – 19:52
Macky Sall is going to Moscow this Thursday, June 2. This is indicated by sources at the presidency in Dakar. The Senegalese head of state, in his capacity as current president of the African Union, is to meet his counterpart Vladimir Putin, to ” carry the voice of Africa in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. A conflict that weighs heavily on the economies of the continent.
With our correspondent in Dakar, Charlotte Idrac
The departure is scheduled for Thursday morning, heading to Sochi for an interview with Vladimir Putin. Macky Sall will be accompanied by Moussa Faki Mahamat, President of the African Union Commission.
This trip to Russia, Macky Sall had announced during the visit of the German Chancellor to Dakar on May 22. ” We want peace, we work for a ceasefire », « this is the african position said the Head of State. But it was actually decided on May 10, during a meeting of the extended bureau of the African Union, ” to contribute to the lull in the war in Ukraine », according to the presidency in Dakar, and « the release of stocks of cereals and fertilizers, the blockage of which particularly affects African countries “says its press release.
The Senegalese president repeatedly underlined the consequences of the conflict for the continent, in particular the rise in the cost of hydrocarbons, and the difficulties of access to wheat, largely imported from Russia and Ukraine. It should therefore plead for supply facilities.
While Senegal abstained in the first vote on the UN resolution condemning Russia, Macky Sall poses as a mediator. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had expressed to Macky Sall his wish to address African heads of state. According to our interlocutors at the presidency, there are no plans to stop in kyiv immediately after: “ A trip to Ukraine will be the subject of another sequence “. No precision at this stage on a timetable. The Senegalese president is expected to leave Russia on Friday to go to the ECOWAS summit in Accra.
Food crisis
Macky Sall and Moussa Faki’s priority is above all to try to resolve the food crisis threatening Africa. The President-in-Office of the African Union and the President of the Commission of the Pan-African organization have received a clear mandate from the African Union: to make it possible for Ukraine and Russia to export their cereals and the fertilizers the world needs.
According to what the Senegalese president said to the Europeans at the beginning of the week, it is a question of avoiding a serious food crisis in Africa. Because in addition to the increase in the price of wheat, now it is the soaring price of fertilizers that threatens harvests. This outbreak could cause a 20 to 50% collapse in cereal yields in Africa this year, says Macky Sall.
Indeed, many countries depend on fertilizers produced in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. However, the effects of the sanctions on Russia, those of the war that it itself unleashed, those finally of the rise in gas prices have caused the price of nitrogen fertilizers to jump, which have become unaffordable for farmers in Africa. Moreover, the African Development Bank will finance half a million tons of fertilizer, mainly for the countries of the Sahel.
Other financing programs for fertilizers and also cereals have been announced by the World Bank and development agencies. Africa does not want to be the collateral victim of the war in Ukraine. She therefore activates her diplomacy before the worst announced comes true.
► Worrying food situation in West Africa: cereal stocks at their lowest