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African Union chair: Putin's grain offer not enough, Ukraine ceasefire needed (www.reuters.com)

submitted 1 year ago by HowRu68@lemmy.world to c/world@lemmy.world

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[-] xuxebiko@kbin.social 69 points 1 year ago

In a closing address to a Russia-Africa summit in St Petersburg, he also said Putin had shown readiness to negotiate with Ukraine, and that "the other side" now needed to be persuaded.

"The President of Russia demonstrated that he is ready help us in the field of grain supply," Assoumani said. "Yes, this is important, but it may not be quite enough. We need to achieve a ceasefire."

He is acting like Putin's patsy here. The President of Rusia has caused this problem with his illegal war on Ukraine. Why should Ukraine accept a frozen conflict with Russia or accept Russian occupation of even an inch of their land? Why is he not demanding Russia, the aggressor, stop its illegal war and withdraw from Ukraine? Or demand Russia stop bmbing Odessa's ports and allow resumption of grain supply?

Why is he blaming the victimss of Putin's imperialism?

[-] echodot@feddit.uk 15 points 1 year ago

African countries in general doesn't seem to have a grip on this conflict. I don't know if they just don't really have the right information, or don't have the necessary experience with Putin.

[-] xuxebiko@kbin.social 37 points 1 year ago

I'll disagree here. IIRC, 3/4 African leaders refused to attend Putin's Russia-Africa summit, so it looks like only Putin's supporters travelled to St.Petersburg.

[-] sab@kbin.social 18 points 1 year ago

And those who had allied themselves closely with Russia still took the occasion to mark a disagreement with the war.

Sure, it could have been clearer in opposition to Russia's warfare, but that would also be extremely politically costly for them. The fact that they bring up the issue at all is great, even if they do so while trying not to lose their most powerful ally.

In the end, Putin wanted something and didn't get it because of the war.

[-] InverseParallax@lemmy.world 17 points 1 year ago

They don't care, they have no dog in this fight, both parties are too far away to be much of a threat, and many rely on Russian resources to help keep their populations in line, like wagner or russia arms.

The ideology looks much different from Africa, it's just 2 groups of white people fighting over something irrelevant.

[-] lanolinoil@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

It's just brinkmanship. They're in a position to negotiate for more than they're normally worth given the political climate/war. They'll position towards that and then try to use it to negotiate a better deal with the west and take the best offer. Unfortunately best offer may be personally enriching not country enriching

[-] ObamaBinLaden@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago

Nah, it's just that blaming Russia gets them zero dollars while blaming Ukraine potentially gets them not zero dollars. Post colonial Africa has been provided so much international kool aid that not getting any gives them withdrawals. There is so much research around how providing aid to African nations is detrimental to their economy but is that goes against the interest of local politicians who use procurement of foreign aid as a measure of their performance in office.

[-] anewbeginning@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

One would think they would be against any type of imperialism and the taking of countries, but apparently it doesn’t upset them to see happen to others.

[-] ThunderingJerboa@kbin.social 4 points 1 year ago

One can have objections but the reality is these countries rely on Ukraine/Russia's grain exports. So its a rock and a hard place. Realistically Ukraine ain't going to cut them off for these comments since it would be seen as a big dick move. Russia on the other hand, that is a toss up.

[-] kent_eh@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 year ago

Meanwhile Putin is trying very hard to cut them off from access to Ukrain's grain.

[-] fluxion@lemmy.world 32 points 1 year ago

Totally agree, but he could also just not explicitly block/threaten grain ships and blow up grain stores. There's no way to spin it but somehow people still buy his bullshit excuses

[+] Chickenstalker@lemmy.world -8 points 1 year ago

Why does Africa, a continent with suitable climate and ample lands for crops need to import food from...Europe? Shouldn't it be the reverse? Surely more than 4000 years of African agricultural history can be tapped into to ensure at least some food security for grains? Or are Africans not up to the challenge? Oh, I'm a racist? Or are African leaders too corrupt, inept and just plain lazy to develop their own agriculture? The world, wonders.

[-] geogle@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago

This is just a nieve view. Africa is a diverse and very large continent, with many different lands.
Sure some countries have fantastic and stable agricultural lands, particularly near the equator. Other countries suffer large multi year droughts that can rapidly and negatively impact large populations. These populations then heavily depend on imports, and relief from a country like Ukraine, Russia, or the US that all make easily transportable grain.

The US has had a similar problem during the dust bowl of the 1930s. This is not an African only problem.

[-] maporita@unilem.org 3 points 1 year ago

Africa has been getting steadily worse over the last several decades. Countries that used to export food to the rest of the continent, like Zimbabwe, are now impoverished and people there depend on aid to survive. Even the "best" countries are just staying level, but the continent is not succeeding as it should and shows no signs of doing so.

[-] lanolinoil@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

Technology, capital, corruption

this post was submitted on 29 Jul 2023

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