Europe 1 with AFP
More than six months after the Russian invasion in Ukraine, France pleaded on Monday before many African officials for the “solidarity” of the African continent with the Europeans. If the war in Ukraine has a strong impact on Africa, its leaders remain vague on the issue and do not condemn Russia’s actions.
French Secretary of State Chrysoula Zacharopoulou pleaded Monday before many African officials for the continent’s “solidarity” with Europeans in the face of the Russian offensive against Ukraine. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has divided African countries, as several votes at the United Nations since February 2022 have shown. Nearly half of them still abstained or did not take part. vote on October 12 when the UN General Assembly condemned Russia’s annexation of Ukrainian territory.
“Solidarity”
The Russian offensive against Ukraine represents an “existential threat to the stability and integrity of our continent”, said the French Secretary of State to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at the opening of the 8th Dakar International Forum, conference on security and peace in Africa.
“All Europeans experience it this way. This is why we express an expectation of solidarity with Africa,” she said in the presence of Senegalese President Macky Sall, current chairman of the African Union. , two other African heads of state and a number of foreign ministers.
Strong impact of the Ukrainian crisis in Africa
“We will never say it enough: Russia is solely responsible for this economic, energy and food crisis,” she added. Africa has been hard hit by the effects of the Ukrainian crisis and its impact on prices and supplies, in cereals for example.
Faced with criticism that finds a broad echo in Africa against a propensity of France or Western countries to want to dictate their law to their African partners, the French official assured that France, when it deploys missions like the Sahelian anti-jihadist force Barkhane , did not intervene “in substitution” for the national armies, but “in support”.