The current chairman of the African Union (AU) will soon visit the two capitals to plead for peace.
In African countries, the impacts of the war in Ukraine are beginning to be felt harshly. Inflation is on the rise again, threatening the stability of several nations. Faced with this situation, the African Union (AU) no longer wants to remain on the sidelines.
“We have received a mandate from Africa to travel to Moscow and Kiev to ask President Vladimir Putin to create the conditions that will allow Ukraine to export its seeds, which we need, but also so that certain sanctions imposed on Russia are lifted. This will allow us to trade with it and buy fertilizers that are essential for our agriculture,” said Macky Sall.
The current chairman of the AU was speaking on Monday at the official opening ceremony of the 54th session of the Economic Commission for Africa, which is being held from May 11 to 17 at the Abdou Diouf International Conference Centre (CICAD) in Diamniadio, on the outskirts of Dakar.
After two years of COVID-19, hope for a return to normalcy was slowly being reborn in the world. But “the war in Ukraine has begun. And its impact on the entire planet, especially on Africa, will definitely compromise any prospect of economic recovery. All the solutions advocated before are now obsolete,” lamented the successor of Felix Tshisekedi to the rotating presidency of the pan-African organization.
According to Sall, all the economies of the black continent “are in a state of general fatigue which unfortunately, we do not yet measure the extent or duration.” Continuing, the Senegalese president blasted the impossibility for his continent to get supplies in the two countries in conflict because of Western sanctions while “the gas taps are still not closed and continue to supply some European countries.”
The Senegalese head of state noted that projections are difficult today because “no one knows when this crisis will end. On this basis, he reiterated “the AU’s urgent call for a ceasefire and a negotiated solution to the conflict to avoid the worst.”
The 54th Conference of African Ministers of Economy and Finance (COM2022), organized at the initiative of the Economic Commission for Africa of the United Nations, began its work last Wednesday with the meeting of experts. This one took place over three days and continues with the ministerial meeting which ends on Tuesday at CICAD.
ARD/id/lb/abj/APA