AU chairperson says Africa a collateral victim’ of Ukraine war.
Written by News Room on May 25, 2022
Top officials of the African Union and United Nations have said in messages for Africa Day that the continent has become a collateral victim of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, further denting the continent’s ability to fulfil its enormous promise and potential.
Every year, May 25 is marked as Africa Day, the anniversary of the founding of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) on May 25, 1963, which became the African Union in July 2002.
Chairperson of the African Union Commission Moussa Faki Mahamat, said Africa has become the collateral victim of a distant conflict, that between Russia and Ukraine by profoundly upsetting the fragile global geopolitical and geostrategic balance, it has also cast a harsh light on the structural fragility of the country’s economies.
Millions of people in Africa, which has an estimated population of 1.3 billion, have been pushed into extreme poverty by the COVID-19 pandemic. And now, the continent has been hit hard by rising food costs caused partly by disruptions linked to the war.
Russia and Ukraine produce approximately a third of global wheat and barley, and two-thirds of the world’s exports of sunflower oil used for cooking. The conflict has damaged Ukraine’s maritime and agricultural infrastructure, and that could limit its agricultural production for years.
Seun Fakorede
