In recent days African heads of state have been lining up to persuade Russian leader Vladimir Putin to at least observe a ceasefire in the current onslaught by his army on neighbouring Ukraine.
But will Putin listen to tacit calls from a number of African leaders to halt his army’s invasion of Ukraine which has caused untold carnage including the death of combatants on both sides, and civilians many of them children?
While the rest of the world led by Western governments have condemned Russia over its invasion of Ukraine and went on to impose sanctions with the threat of tightening the screws on them African leaders have generally been reticent especially those with close ties to Mr. Putin.
African countries enjoy strong diplomatic and trade ties with Putin’s Russia which has been on a charm offensive on the continent in recent years accentuated by the Russia-Africa summit which was first held in 2019.
The next will be held later this year.
How deep these relations are is being tested by the current conflict.
In recent days at least two leaders albeit speaking from a position of neutrality have been trying to convince Putin to end hostilities which has driven over one million people including Africans to flee the country.
Africans fleeing the conflict have complained of racist mistreatment by European border guards.
Putin’s Egyptian and Senegalese counterparts Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Macky Sall respectively have spoken with the strongman of Moscow in an attempt to impress on him the need to cease hostilities and sue for talks with Ukraine, a country his army invaded on February 24th.
Mr. Sisi said while his words to the Russian leader were chiefly about cementing ties between Cairo and Moscow, they also looked at the hopelessness of the current conflict from a civilian point of view and why it was time the invasion of that country was paused to allow talks for a definitive ceasefire.
The Egyptian leader is known to have nurtured strong ties with Mr. Putin and it would be a huge propaganda coup for him if his words would constitute much more than a distant echo against the drumbeat of war sounding in Moscow.
Putin has been lending an ear to Sisi’s Senegalese counterpart Macky Sall who was using his new status as the current chair of the African Union to urge the Russian leader for an end to the fighting.
Happy with his progress Mr Sall’s office tweeted his delight about the nature of the talks with Putin who was praised for “his willingness to maintain dialogue for a negotiated outcome to the conflict.”
There is hope because there have been hints that Putin may bow to international opinion and offer reprieve to Ukraine but this cannot be independently verified.
Whether Sisi and Sall’s words will eventually succeed where Western sanctions have failed to dissuade Putin from further prosecuting the conflict remains to be seen.
Meanwhile the carnage on the streets of Kyiv, Demydiv, Kharkiv and other Ukrainian towns and cities continues unabated as Russian invading troops bombard targets, resulting in the loss of civilian lives.
WN/as/APA