MOSCOW: Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday offered free grain to six African countries as he launched a summit with leaders from the continent days after withdrawing from the Ukraine grain export deal.
The two-day summit in Putin’s native Saint Petersburg is being scrutinized as a test of his support in Africa, where he retains backing despite international isolation sparked by his military intervention in Ukraine last year.
Russia last week refused to extend a deal under which Ukrainian grain exports passed through the Black Sea to reach global markets, including Africa, easing pressure on food prices.
In a keynote address at the summit, Putin said Russia could “substitute Ukrainian grain” and promised to send grain to six African countries.
“In the coming months we will be able to ensure free supplies of 25,000 to 50,000 tons of grain to Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe, Mali, Somalia, Central African Republic and Eritrea,” Putin said.
Over a year, the grain deal allowed around 33 million tons of grain to leave Ukrainian ports, helping to stabilize global food prices and avert shortages.
Since the suspension of the agreement attacks have intensified on the southern Odesa region home to Ukraine’s ports — where the Russian army said it hit military infrastructure.
Ukrainian army spokeswoman Nataliya Gumenyuk told AFP that Russia imposed a blockade of “virtually all” its ports “to close Ukraine as a country that can feed the world.”
Gumenyuk said Ukraine needed Western air defense quickly to protect grain facilities from strikes, adding Ukraine “may not have ports anymore” in two or three months.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken pressed African leaders attending the summit to demand answers about the grain disruptions that have propelled poorer nations toward crisis.
“They know exactly who’s to blame for this current situation,” Blinken said of the leaders.
“My expectation would be that Russia will hear this clearly from our African partners,” he said Thursday during a visit to New Zealand.
Seventeen African leaders including South African President Cyril Ramaphosa were expected at the Russia-Africa summit taking place until Friday.
The Kremlin has accused Western countries of trying to prevent African states from participating at the summit, the second of its kind.
On Friday, Putin is set to discuss Ukraine during a working lunch with a group of African heads of state, according to the Kremlin.
The situation in Niger, where President Mohamed Bazoum has been detained by soldiers following a coup bid, is “actively” discussed on the sidelines of the summit, the Kremlin spokesman said.
Russia urged the “rapid release of President Bazoum by the military” in a statement from foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova.
Putin held talks Wednesday with Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, praising their joint energy projects.
Putin also chaired a working breakfast with heads of African regional organizations, and bilateral talks including with Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
Putin gifted Mnangagwa a helicopter, and wished him success in the upcoming elections that analysts expect to be tense.
On the sidelines of the summit, Putin said “fighting has intensified significantly” in the southern Zaporizhzhia region.
Since launching its offensive in Ukraine, Moscow has sought to strengthen ties with Africa by emphasising Russia’s stand against Western “imperialism.”
“The framework in which Russia and Africa interact has seriously changed” with the coronavirus pandemic and the Ukraine conflict, said Vsevolod Sviridov of the Center for African Studies at HSE University.
“It is necessary to find common ground, to explain to each other positions on topical issues, for example, the grain deal,” he told AFP.
Russia’s Wagner mercenary group has been a major player in the security sphere in Africa but its failed mutiny against Russia’s military leadership last month has cast doubt on the future of the group’s operations on the continent.
The summit in Saint Petersburg comes a month ahead of a summit of leaders of the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) due to take place in Johannesburg.
South Africa has said that Putin, who is the subject of an international arrest warrant for his actions in Ukraine, will not be attending in person.
Putin promises free grain at Africa summit
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Putin promises free grain at Africa summit
- Putin held one-on-one talks with Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, and said Russia will more than triple the number of Ethiopian students it hosts and cover their education costs
- Africa’s 54 nations make up the largest voting bloc at the UN and have been more divided than any other region on General Assembly resolutions criticizing Russia’s actions in Ukraine
Heavy shelling, explosions spark fear along Pakistan-Afghanistan border
- Residents fear for their safety amid border clashes
- 1,500 Afghan families displaced due to heavy shelling and explosions
- Pakistan denies targeting civilians, says its strikes focus on militants
LAL PUR, Afghanistan/PESHAWAR, Pakistan: People living along Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan said they were considering fleeing their homes because of heavy shelling and explosions as fighting between troops from both sides entered a seventh day on Wednesday.
The South Asian allies-turned-foes have engaged in their worst fighting in years following Pakistani airstrikes on major Afghan cities last week, increasing volatility in a region also on edge over US and Israeli strikes on Iran.
Islamabad has said its airstrikes, which have at times directly targeted the Taliban government, are aimed at ending Afghan support for militants carrying out attacks on Pakistan. The Taliban has denied aiding militant groups.
SHELLING STARTS AS VILLAGERS ARE BREAKING RAMADAN FAST
Residents of towns and villages in Pakistan’s northwest said fighting between border forces starts in the evenings, placing their homes in the line of fire, often at sunset when families are breaking their fast in the holy month of Ramadan.
“There is complete silence in the day, but the moment we sit for iftar dinner, the two sides start shelling,” Farid Khan Shinwari from Landi Kotal, a town near the Torkham border crossing, told Reuters.
“We open our fast in extremely difficult situations, as you never know when a shell can hit your house.”
Residents in the town and nearby villages said there had been heavy shelling and some explosions heard in the past few days, prompting many to flee their homes.
On the other side of the border, Afghans shared similar stories of skirmishes and families fleeing their homes.
Hundreds had been displaced to an open dirt field under makeshift tents, while others had no shelter at all. Officials say around 1,500 families have fled their homes.
Fighting along the 2,600-km (1,615-mile) border has ebbed and flowed over the week-long conflict, with both sides saying they have inflicted heavy losses on the other country and gained ground in the fighting.
Reuters has been unable to verify these accounts.
TURKEY HAS OFFERED TO MEDIATE
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif that Ankara would help reinstate a ceasefire, the Turkish Presidency said on Tuesday, as other countries that had offered to mediate have since been hit by the conflict in the Gulf.
On Wednesday, both countries reported exchanges of heavy fire, with Afghanistan’s defense ministry saying Taliban forces shot down a Pakistani drone and captured seven border posts.
A spokesperson for the ministry said 110 civilians, including 65 women and children, had been killed since the fighting began and another 123 were wounded. The United Nations mission for Afghanistan has listed 42 deaths so far.
Pakistan’s Information Minister Attaullah Tarar disputed both figures, saying: “Pakistan exercises great care in only targeting terrorists and support infrastructure. No civilian structures have been targeted.”
On Saturday, Pakistan struck “ammunition and critical equipment” at the Bagram air base north of Kabul, Tarar said, a key American command center through the 20-year Afghan war.
