AMN / WEB DESK
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is visiting Africa trip this week. He is visiting Egypt, the Republic of the Congo, Uganda and Ethiopia.
Lavrov met with Congo’s President Denis Sassou N’guesso and Foreign Minister Jean-Claude Gakosso. Lavrov’s visit is the first to the country by Russia’s top minister.
In Egypt on Sunday, Lavrov told his Egyptian counterpart Sameh Shoukry that Russia would meet grain orders.
On Friday, Russia and Ukraine signed a deal with the United Nations and Turkey aimed at relieving a global food crisis caused by blocked Black Sea grain shipments.
Many African nations are heavily dependent on imports of wheat and other grains from Russia and Ukraine, but supplies have been badly disrupted by the war in Ukraine, exacerbating the risk of hunger.
In June, African Union Chairman Macky Sall told Russian President Vladimir Putin that even though Africa was far from the theater of war, African people are “victims of this economic crisis.”
Yet it is in the field of security where Russia seems to be trying to truly make its mark on the African continent.
Military support for Africa
Lavrov’s visit is being seen as a push to rally the support of African nations, many of whom have strong historical ties with Russia, amid strong Western condemnation of the war in Ukraine.
In the months before his visit, Russia signed various political and military deals on the continent.
In early January, hundreds of Russian military advisors were deployed to Mali. Contractors from the controversial Russian military group Wagner Group were invited to “help Mali train its security forces,” according to the Malian army.