Africa-Confidential: Zelensky wants African audience

14th April 2022
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has asked to address the African Union as part of his relentless campaign for international support. Current AU chair, Senegalese President Macky Sall said the request came during a phone call in which the leaders discussed the economic effects of the war and ‘the need for a negotiated outcome’. Nothing has yet been agreed.

Ambivalence has been the reaction of many African states to Russia’s invasion. Of the 58 countries who abstained from an 7 April vote in the United Nations General Assembly to suspend Russia from the UN Human Rights Council, 24 were African, while a further nine African countries voted against the resolution (AC Vol 63 No 7, Continental ties tested in a zero-sum game).

European Union diplomats are anxious about the prospect of Russian propaganda targeting African states, several of which are particularly reliant on wheat and grain imports, portraying shortages and supply chain disruption as a consequence of western sanctions on Russia.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has already claimed sanctions against Russia had led to a global food crisis and spiralling energy prices. Even before Russia’s invasion in late February, the EU was anxious about growing Russian influence in Africa.

That, say insiders, could explain the European Commission’s recent moves to guarantee €450 million of financial support to Tunisia, despite President Kaïs Saïed dissolving parliament last week (Dispatches 1/4/22, President Saïed dissolves parliament and accuses MPs of treason but Brussels keeps the cash flowing). The EU has also set up a €200m fund for North African states to mitigate grain shortages, although EU officials say that the size of this fund will probably have to be significantly increased in Africa.