Captain Ibrahim Traore was appointed as president of Burkina Faso on Wednesday, according to an official statement, after the West African country’s second coup in less than nine months.

The impoverished Sahel nation plunged into renewed turmoil at the weekend when Lieutenant-Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba — who had seized power in January — was toppled by newly emerged rival Traore, leading a faction of disgruntled junior officers.

It was the latest putsch in the Sahel region much of which, like Burkina Faso, is battling a growing Islamist insurgency.

Traore has been appointed as “Head of State, Supreme Head of the Armed Forces”, according to the official statement read out on national television by spokesman for the ruling junta Captain Kiswendsida Farouk Azaria Sorgho.

The statement said that Traore would now be the “guarantor of national independence, territorial integrity… and continuity of the State.”

Damiba fled to Togo following the two-day standoff, which was defused by religious and community leaders.

Burkina is struggling with a seven-year-old jihadist campaign that has claimed thousands of lives, forced nearly two million people to flee their homes and left more than a third of the country outside government control.

Swelling anger within the armed forces prompted Damiba’s coup against the elected president in January.

Appointing himself transitional head of state, Damiba had vowed to make security the country’s top priority — but after a brief lull the attacks revived, claiming hundreds of lives.

Tensions

Delegates from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) wrapped up a fact-finding mission Tuesday and held meetings with religious and traditional leaders and Traore.

Traore said the ECOWAS visit was to “make contact with the new transition authorities” as part of the support that Burkina Faso derived from the region.

Speculation has risen that Burkina’s new leader may follow other fragile regimes in French-speaking Africa and forge close ties with Moscow at the expense of France, the region’s former colonial power and traditional ally.

The dramatic takeover coincided with violent anti-French protests and the sudden emergence of Russian flags among demonstrators.

On the streets, demonstrators’ slogans included “France get out”, “No to ECOWAS interference”, and “Long live Russia-Burkina cooperation”.

The United States has warned the junta of the risks of allying with Russia, saying they condemned “any attempt to exacerbate the current situation in Burkina Faso”.

“We strongly encourage the new transitional government to adhere to the agreed-upon timeline for a return to a democratically elected, civilian-led government,” a State Department spokesman said earlier this week.

Traore has previously said he would stand by a pledge that Damiba gave ECOWAS for restoring civilian rule by July 2024.

Source: AFP

Several dozen protestors waving Russian flags rallied in Burkina Faso’s capital Ouagadougou on Tuesday as West African delegates arrived on a fact-finding mission following the country’s second coup in less than nine months.

Demonstrators chanted support for Russia, called on France to leave the country and warned ECOWAS — the Economic Community of West African States — against “meddling”, an AFP journalist saw.

The impoverished Sahel state was plunged into turmoil at the weekend when Lieutenant-Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba, who had seized power only in January, was toppled by a newly emerged rival, 34-year-old Captain Ibrahim Traore.

The dramatic takeover coincided with violent anti-French protests and the emergence of Russian flags among demonstrators, stoking speculation that Traore may follow other regimes in French-speaking Africa and forge close ties with Moscow at France’s expense.

The ECOWAS delegation, whose visit was initially scheduled for Monday, arrived on Tuesday morning and was to head to the president’s office to meet Traore, officials told AFP.

The bloc, designed to promote democracy in one of the world’s most volatile regions, has witnessed five coups among three of its 15 members in little more than two years.

Its approach has been to urge junta leaders to set a relatively short timetable for restoring civilian rule — and to impose sanctions against those deemed to be ignoring the demand or sidestepping their pledges.

But it has also taken flak, with some critics accusing it of supporting Western, or specifically French, interests.

Traore said in a statement the ECOWAS visit was to “make contact with the new transition authorities” as part of the support that ECOWAS provided to Burkina Faso.

He said he had learned “with astonishment and regret” that messages had circulated on social media “calling for this mission to be hampered” and urged calm and restraint.

“Any person who commits acts aimed at disturbing the smooth course of the ECOWAS mission will face the force of the law,” Traore said.

The ECOWAS visit to Ouagadougou is headed by Guinea-Bissau Foreign Minister Suzi Carla Barbosa, whose country currently chairs the bloc, and includes former Niger president Mahamadou Issoufou, who is the mediator for Burkina Faso.

Jihadist pressure

Landlocked and deeply poor, Burkina Faso has experienced little political stability since gaining independence from France in 1960.

The latest turmoil takes place against the backdrop of a bloody jihadist insurgency that swept in from neighbouring Mali in 2015.

Thousands of civilians, troops and police officers have been killed and nearly two million people have fled their homes.

Swelling anger within the armed forces prompted Damiba’s coup against the elected president, Roch Marc Christian Kabore, on January 24.

Appointing himself transitional head of state, Damiba vowed to make security the country’s top priority but after a brief lull the attacks revived, claiming hundreds of lives.

Traore emerged on Friday at the head of a faction of disgruntled junior officers which proclaimed that Damiba had been deposed — also for failing to roll back the insurgency.

Damiba fled to the neighbouring state of Togo on Sunday following a two-day standoff that was defused by religious and community leaders.

Traore on Monday told the French radio station RFI that he would stand by a pledge that Damiba gave ECOWAS for restoring civilian rule by July 2024.

He said that he would simply carry out “day-to-day business” until a new civilian or military transitional president was appointed by a national forum gathering political and social representatives.

This meeting would take place “well before the end of the year,” he said.

Source: AFP

Kenya’s defeated presidential candidate Raila Odinga has filed an online petition to the country’s top court, his lawyer told AFP Monday, challenging the result of the August 9 election that handed victory to his rival William Ruto.

Odinga, a veteran opposition leader who ran with the backing of the ruling party, has rejected the outcome of the poll, branding it a “travesty”, after he narrowly lost to Ruto by around 230,000 votes or less than two percentage points.

“It has already been sent to them and they will see it soon,” said Daniel Maanzo, who is part of the 77-year-old politician’s legal team.

“We have hopes that we have made a good case and will win,” he said.

Paul Mwangi, who is also representing Odinga, told AFP that a physical copy of the petition would be filed before the Supreme Court’s 2 pm (1100 GMT) deadline.

Although polling day passed off peacefully, the announcement of the results a week ago sparked angry protests in some Odinga strongholds and there are fears that a drawn-out dispute may lead to violence in a country with a history of post-poll unrest.

Since 2002, every presidential election in Kenya has triggered a dispute, with this year’s outcome also causing a rift within the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) that oversaw the poll.

Odinga, who was making his fifth bid for the top job, also approached the Supreme Court in August 2017, when President Uhuru Kenyatta was declared the winner of the presidential race.

‘Null and void’

The court annulled that election in a first for Africa and ordered a re-run which was boycotted by Odinga. Dozens of people died during a police crackdown on protests.

Judges now have 14 days to issue a ruling. If they order an annulment, a new vote must be held within 60 days.

Odinga, who has since buried the hatchet with Kenyatta, winning the president’s backing for his candidacy, said last week that the figures announced by the IEBC were “null and void and must be quashed by a court of law”.

The IEBC was under heavy pressure to deliver a clean vote after facing sharp criticism over its handling of the August 2017 election.

But in a shocking development shortly after the results were announced, four of the IEBC’s seven commissioners said the numbers did not add up, accusing chairman Wafula Chebukati of running an “opaque” operation.

Chebukati dismissed the allegations, insisting that he had carried out his duties according to the law of the land despite “intimidation and harassment”.

Legal experts are divided on whether Chebukati needed the commissioners’ backing to announce the results, with constitutional lawyer Charles Kanjama telling AFP there was “some ambiguity” surrounding the issue.

Odinga has previously said he was cheated of victory in the 2007, 2013 and 2017 elections, and the poll’s aftermath is being keenly watched as a test of democratic maturity in the East African powerhouse.

On the campaign trail, both frontrunners pledged to resolve any disputes in court rather than on the streets.

Since the results were declared, Odinga has commended his supporters for “remaining calm” while Ruto has taken a conciliatory tone and promised to “work with all leaders”.

Kenya’s worst electoral violence occurred after the 2007 vote, when more than 1,100 people died in politically motivated clashes involving rival tribes.

If the court upholds the results, Ruto will become Kenya’s fifth president since independence from Britain in 1963, taking over the reins of a country battling surging inflation, high unemployment and a crippling drought.

Source: AFP

France on Thursday denied accusations by Mali’s foreign minister that the French army has provided support to Islamist groups and violated Malian airspace. Mali’s relations with Paris have been deteriorating since a junta took power in an August 2020 coup, eventually culminating in the withdrawal of French troops that was completed on Monday after a nearly decade-long mission.

The accusations mark a new low in relations amid reports that Russian mercenaries hired by Mali’s military government were flocking to fill the power vacuum left by French troops leaving the country, prompting new worries among Western powers over the security situation in the Sahel region.

Mali says France has violated its airspace and delivered arms to Islamist militants in an attempt to destabilise the West African country, the latest in a barrage of accusations that have marked a bitter end to their once-close relations.

In a letter to the head of the United Nations Security Council dated Monday, Mali’s foreign affairs minister, Abdoulaye Diop, said its airspace has been breached more than 50 times this year, mostly by French forces using drones, military helicopters and fighter jets. “These flagrant violations of Malian airspace were used by France to collect information for terrorist groups operating in the Sahel and to drop arms and ammunition to them,” the letter said.

Mali provided no evidence that France had supplied arms to Islamist groups. France has spent a decade and billions of dollars to stamp out Islamist militants, some with links to al Qaeda and the Islamic State group, in its former colony and across the Sahel region.

“France has obviously never supported, directly or indirectly, these terrorist groups, which remain its designated enemies across the planet,” the French embassy in Mali said in a Twitter thread.

The embassy said that 53 French soldiers had died during its nine-year mission in Mali and that France had killed hundreds of Islamist fighters to restore security for Malians. France has also suffered Islamist attacks at home, it added.

German UN soldiers said they saw Russian forces landing at the airport in Gao and unloading equipment on Monday, the day the last French soldiers left, according to a German military document dated Tuesday.

Fighters from the Wagner Group, a Kremlin-linked private military company, have been supporting the Malian army in its fight against Islamist insurgents since late last year.

French forces were welcomed as heroes in Mali in 2013 after the government in Bamako asked France for help against the Islamist groups that had taken over much of the north, including the fabled city of Timbuktu.

But a series of setbacks and prolonged attacks by the militants have soured relations, which became worse since a military junta overthrew the government in 2020 and later overthrew an interim civilian cabinet.

Mali’s ruling junta called in February for France to withdraw its troops “without delay”. In May the junta announced it was leaving the defence accords it concluded with France, condemning “flagrant violations” of its national sovereignty by French troops.

Its military rulers had pledged to return power to civilians in 2022 but subsequently extended the timetable to 2024, incurring regional sanctions.

Reported by AFP and REUTERS

President-elect William Ruto is one of Kenya’s wealthiest men but has long portrayed himself as “hustler-in-chief” — the champion of the poor and downtrodden.

Defying corruption allegations going back years, the ambitious 55-year-old clawed his way to the centre of power by playing on his religious faith and humble beginnings selling chickens by the roadside.

His duel against former prime minister Raila Odinga in the August 9 elections was something that he painted in simple terms.

It was, he said, a battle between ordinary “hustlers” struggling to put food on the table and the elite Kenyatta and Odinga “dynasties” that had dominated Kenyan politics for decades.

“We want everyone to feel the wealth of this country. Not just a few at the top,” Ruto had said as he criss-crossed the country promoting his “bottom-up” economic plan.

The shadowy rags-to-riches businessman had effectively run as a challenger after a very public and acrimonious falling out with outgoing president Uhuru Kenyatta, who backed Odinga for the top job.

Despite a race dominated by mudslinging, Ruto on Monday struck a conciliatory tone after his win, vowing to work with “all leaders” after the outcome split the election commission and sparked fears of violence.

“There is no room for vengeance,” Ruto said, adding: “I am acutely aware that our country is at a stage where we need all hands on deck.”

‘Effective strategist’

Ruto had served as deputy president under Kenyatta since 2013, supporting him in two elections with a promise that he would have the backing of his boss in this year’s vote.

It was a political marriage of convenience forged in the aftermath of deadly post-poll violence in 2007-2008 that largely pitted the Kikuyu — Kenyatta’s tribe — against the Kalenjin, Ruto’s ethnic group.

Both men were hauled before the International Criminal Court (ICC), accused of stoking the ethnic unrest.

The cases were eventually dropped, with the prosecution complaining of a relentless campaign of witness intimidation.

But Ruto was left out in the cold after Kenyatta shook hands with longtime foe Odinga in a dramatic switch of political allegiance in 2018.

He bounced back with a campaign that was directed as much at Kenyatta as his rival at the ballot box, blaming the government for Kenya’s economic woes and even accusing the president of threatening him and his family

“Ruto is seen by many people to be one of the most effective strategists in Kenyan politics,” Nic Cheeseman, a political scientist at the University of Birmingham in Britain, said before the poll.

‘Perfect storm’

Clad in the bright yellow of his United Democratic Alliance, whose symbol is the humble wheelbarrow, Ruto sought to reach out to those suffering most from the Covid-induced cost of living crisis that has been aggravated by the war in Ukraine.

Ruto “picked the perfect storm,” Kenyan political analyst Nerima Wako-Ojiwa said before the election.

Observers attribute Ruto’s aggressiveness to the fact he has had to struggle to get everything he has achieved in life from his lowly start in Kenya’s Rift Valley, the Kalenjin heartland.

“I sold chicken at a railway crossing near my home as a child… I paid (school) fees for my siblings,” he once said.

“God has been kind to me and through hard work and determination, I have something.”

His fortune is now said to run into many millions of dollars, with interests spanning hotels, real estate and insurance as well as a vast chicken farm.

A teetotal father of six who describes himself as a born-again Christian, Ruto seldom lets a speech go by without thanking or praising God or reciting from the Bible.

He first got a foot on the political ladder — and detractors claim, access to funds — in 1992. After completing studies in botany, he headed the YK’92 youth movement tasked with drumming up support for the autocratic then-president Daniel arap Moi, also a Kalenjin.

In 1997, when he tried to launch his parliamentary career by contesting a seat on his home turf of Eldoret North, Moi told him he was a disrespectful son of a pauper.

Undeterred, Ruto went on to clinch the seat, which he retained in subsequent elections.

His detractors say he siphoned money from the YK’92 project and used it to go into business, and allegations of corruption and land grabs still hang over him.

But he has long dismissed such claims, once telling local media: “I can account for every coin that I have.”

Source:  AFP

The head of Kenya’s election body on Monday declared Deputy President William Ruto the winner of the country’s close-fought presidential election, despite several commissioners rejecting the results.

“We cannot take ownership of the result that will be announced,” Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) vice chair Juliana Cherera told reporters.

She described the process as “opaque” but did not elaborate, saying further information would be given later.

The IEBC had earlier said it would be issuing the results of the closely fought August 9 race at 1200 GMT but by almost 1500 GMT there was still no announcement.

Latest official results published by Kenyan media early Monday had given Deputy President William Ruto a slight edge over Raila Odinga, the veteran opposition leader who had run with the support of the ruling party.

As confusion reigned, scuffles broke out at the IEBC’s heavily guarded national tallying centre in Nairobi, where some people were seen throwing chairs.

The IEBC has been under pressure to deliver a clean poll after claims of rigging and mismanagement led to the annulment of the 2017 election race.

Source: AFP

Kenya is expected Monday to learn the outcome of its closely-fought presidential election after a long wait for results that has put the nation on edge.

Deputy President William Ruto was leading with slightly more than 51 percent of the vote against 48 percent for Raila Odinga, based on official results from more than 80 percent of constituencies, according to a tally published by the Daily Nation newspaper.

At church services on Sunday in the largely Christian country, both men had appealed for calm as the wait for final results of the August 9 vote dragged on.

Polling day passed off largely peacefully in the East African political and economic powerhouse, but memories of vote-rigging and deadly violence in 2007-08 and 2017 still loom large.

And the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) is under intense pressure to deliver a clean poll in a country regarded as a beacon of stability in a troubled region.

Results must be issued by the end of Tuesday at the latest, according to Kenya’s constitution.

“I am ready for whatever outcome. Whether it is Ruto or Raila we must move on. We have waited for too long,” said Livingstone Wabwire, 27, a shoe shiner in downtown Nairobi.

Disenchantment

Ruto, 55, is deputy president but effectively ran as challenger after outgoing President Uhuru Kenyatta threw his support behind his former foe Odinga, the 77-year-old veteran opposition leader making his fifth bid for the top job.

Kenyans voted in six elections to choose a new president as well as senators, governors, lawmakers, women representatives and some 1,500 county officials.

Kenyatta, the 60-year-old son of the first post-independence president, has served two terms and could not run again.

The winner of the presidential race needs to secure 50 percent plus one vote and at least a quarter of the votes in 24 of Kenya’s 47 counties.

If not, the country will be forced to hold a runoff within 30 days of the original vote.

Observers say that with the race so close, an appeal to the Supreme Court by the losing candidate is almost certain, meaning it could be many weeks before a new president takes office.

Turnout on polling day was lower than expected at around 65 percent of Kenya’s 22 million registered voters, compared with about 78 percent in the last election in 2017.

Observers blamed disenchantment with the political elite, particularly among young people in a country battling a severe cost- of-living crisis and a punishing drought that has left millions hungry.

‘At breaking point’

Lawyer David Mwaure — one of the four presidential candidates along with former spy George Wajackoyah — conceded on Sunday, endorsing Ruto, whose party won a key gubernatorial race when Johnson Sakaja secured control of Nairobi, Kenya’s capital and richest city.

The Star newspaper on Monday said “public anxiety” over the election results was at “breaking point.”

But, it noted, Kenyans had conducted themselves peacefully during and after the election with no significant incidents reported.

“The will of the people is supreme. We must all accept and respect that decision despite the pain of loss,” it said in an editorial.

The IEBC had faced sharp criticism over its handling of the August 2017 poll, which in a historic first for Africa was annulled by the Supreme Court after Odinga challenged the outcome.

Dozens of people were killed in the chaos that followed the election, with police brutality blamed for the deaths.

Kenyatta went on to win the October rerun after a boycott by Odinga.

The worst electoral violence in Kenya’s history occurred after a disputed vote in 2007, when more than 1,100 people were killed in bloodletting between rival tribes.

Source: AFP

Kenyans crowded around radios and televisions on Thursday, increasingly anxious for news of who their next president will be, two days after voting ended.

The East African country’s election commission (IEBC) has neither released a running tally of results nor said when it plans to announce the winner, but unofficial and sometimes conflicting media counts show a nail-bitingly close race.

Veteran opposition leader and former political prisoner Raila Odinga, 77, is making his fifth stab at the presidency. He stands neck and neck with outgoing Deputy President William Ruto, 55.

Kenyan media are compiling results from images of forms that the commission uploaded to its website from more than 46,000 polling stations, a mammoth task that means their tallies differ, and lag far behind the amount of raw data available.

Amid concerns that those discrepancies could trigger claims of rigging, which have sparked deadly violence after recent ballots, many are urging their fellow citizens — after a largely peaceful election — to wait patiently for the official results.

Outside a butcher’s shop in the western town of Eldoret, dozens of men backslapped each other as they crowded round to read the latest headlines and argued over the relative merits of Ruto and Odinga.

But they all expressed faith in the commission’s ability to deliver a true result.

“This (radio) station is saying this; this station is saying that — we don’t engage with those figures,” said 22-year old driver Ian Kipchirchir.

“Only the IEBC (The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission) has the truth.. We trust the IEBC.”

Scrutinising newspaper headlines two streets away, Ongao Okello added: “There is so much impatience… Given the experience that we have in Kenya, we have to be patient and just wait.”

More than 1,200 people were killed in widespread violence that followed the 2007 election, and more than 100 died after the 2017 polls.

That history adds to scrutiny on an electoral commission wary of repeating mistakes in tallying that caused the Supreme Court to nullify the 2017 result and order a re-run.

Lower turnout

The 2022 outcome is being watched carefully overseas too. Kenya is the region’s richest economy, a stable nation in a volatile region and a close Western ally that hosts regional headquarters for Alphabet, Visa and other international groups.

International observers were generally positive about the election, despite some last-minute printing problems, changes to procedures and inconsistencies in posting results.

Amnesty International however said political parties were intentionally spreading confusion by sharing false reports.

“Several posts by both KENYA KWANZA and AZIMIO candidates and their supporters have intentionally sought to misinform the electorate …on the electoral process and the election results,” a statement by the rights group said, referring to Ruto and Odinga’s political alliances.

Former US ambassador Johnnie Carson — a board member of the National Democratic Institute, an election monitor — said the process needed to be trustworthy more than it needed to be fast.

“The technology should not outpace the trust and integrity the citizens have in the process,” he said.

Meanwhile, media outlets are filling the information gap. By 1500 GMT on Thursday, the privately-owned Nation group had tallied results from 89% of polling stations and put Ruto ahead with 50.20% of the vote and Odinga at 49.12%.

At the same time, privately-owned Citizen gave Ruto 49.09% of the vote and Odinga 49.51%.

According to a Reuters tally of 98 out of 291 constituency-level results forms at 1500 GMT, Odinga had 51.5% votes and Ruto had 47.86%.

Outgoing President Uhuru Kenyatta has reached his two-term limit. He has endorsed Odinga after falling out with Ruto after the last election.

The winning candidate must get 50% of the vote plus one to win, and at least a quarter of votes in 24 out of Kenya’s 47 counties. If there is no outright winner, there will be a second round of voting without the two presidential candidates currently receiving less than one percent between them.

Many Kenyans, frustrated by the shifting alliances of the elites and fed up of rising prices and corruption, didn’t bother to vote in Tuesday’s round at all.

The commission said turnout for the ballot, which also included legislative and local elections, was about 65%, down from nearly 80% in 2017.

Source: REUTERS

Polls opened Tuesday in an unusual presidential election in Kenya, where a longtime opposition leader who is backed by the outgoing president faces a deputy president who styles himself as an outsider. Hundreds of voters lined up hours ahead of polls opening in some locations.

East Africa’s economic hub could see a presidential run-off for the first time ever as the election is expected to be a close one.

Raila Odinga, who has vied for the presidency for a quarter-century, is facing off against Deputy President William Ruto, who has played up his journey from a humble childhood to appeal to millions of struggling Kenyans long accustomed to political dynasties.

More than 22 million people are registered to vote in this election in which economic issues could be of greater importance than the ethnic tensions that have marked past votes, with sometimes deadly results.

Outgoing President Uhuru Kenyatta, the son of Kenya’s first president, cut across the usual ethnic lines by backing longtime rival Odinga after their bitter 2017 election contest. But both Odinga and Ruto have chosen running mates from the country’s largest ethnic group, the Kikuyu.

Odinga has made history by choosing running mate Martha Karua, the first woman to be a leading contender for the deputy presidency.

Rising food and fuel prices, huge government debt, high unemployment and widespread corruption mean economic issues are at the centre of an election in which unregulated campaign spending has already highlighted inequality.

History of election challenges

Kenyans are hoping for a peaceful vote this time around. Past elections have been fraught – in 2007, the country erupted in unrest after Odinga claimed the vote had been stolen from him, leaving more than 1,000 people dead in post-election violence. In 2017, the high court overturned the election results, a first in Africa, after Odinga challenged them over irregularities. He then boycotted the new vote and proclaimed himself the “people’s president”, bringing allegations of treason. A handshake between him and Kenyatta eventually calmed the crisis.

This is likely Odinga’s last try at age 77, and Kenyans and election observers will be watching to see how his often passionate supporters react to the results and any allegations of vote-rigging.

The underfunded Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission is under pressure to ensure a trouble-free vote. Official results must be announced within a week of the election.

(FRANCE 24 with AP)

When French President Emmanuel Macron visited Cameroon this week, he called out an entire continent for “hypocrisy.” Europe had decisively identified Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as a war, he said during a news conference with Cameroonian President Paul Biya on Tuesday, but much of Africa had not.

“I have seen too much hypocrisy, particularly on the African continent,” Macron continued, “and — I’m saying this very calmly — with some not calling it a war when it is one and saying they don’t know who started it because they have diplomatic pressures.”

The French leader’s remarks, which came on the second day of a three-nation tour of Africa, showed a sharp contrast with those from another current visitor to the continent: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. The veteran diplomat began his own four-nation tour of Africa on Saturday, singing praises for Africa and how the continent handled the fallout from the war in Ukraine.

“We appreciate the considered African position as to the situation in and around Ukraine,” Lavrov wrote in a column published in newspapers in Egypt, Congo, Uganda and Ethiopia, the four countries he is in the midst of touring. “Although unprecedented by its scale, the pressure from beyond has not brought our friends to join the anti-Russian sanctions. Such an independent path deserves deep respect.”

These concurrent visits from Western and Russian officials show a difficult reality for African nations. Many had sought to avoid taking a side on the war in Ukraine,, with 25 of Africa’s 54 states abstaining from a vote to condemn Russia’s invasion of its neighbor during the U.N. General Assembly in March.

But whether they like it or not, Africa has been dragged into the conflict. The most glaring issue has been economic, with many countries already shaken by the pandemic now facing a food crisis. African nations once relied heavily on Ukrainian grain — now they are facing soaring prices after Russia blocked ports by the Black Sea fleet. Steep oil prices, meanwhile, have increased economic pressure on many households.

Macron also addressed the issue of food prices during his visit to Cameroon, though he dismissed claims that he was visiting the continent just because of the Ukraine war.

“European economic sanctions on Russia that are now affecting Africa are intended to stop Russia’s attack on Ukraine’s sovereignty and not to punish Africans,” Macron said Wednesday. “France will assist African countries to face the shocks caused by the war by encouraging local investments in agriculture to increase food production.”

U.S. Special Envoy for the Horn of Africa Mike Hammer is also visiting Egypt and Ethiopia this week, where he is due to meet with leaders of the African Union. The State Department has described the main objective of the talks to provide U.S. support for a diplomatic solution over a dam project that has put the two countries at odds over water supplies.

Last week, the United States announced a $1.3 billion “surge” in aid for countries in the Horn of Africa, pointing to the fallout from an enormous drought across Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia. But there are fears that the current level of aid from Europe is not enough: Devex reported last week that an internal document from the European Union delegation to the African Union saw “the EU losing the battle for hearts and minds in Africa over the conflict.”

African nations have been inundated with counter-information backed by the Kremlin. In the column that presaged the visit, Lavrov said the food crisis hitting Africa was partly due to Western sanctions on Russia, but also amounted to a global economic system that supported the West at the expense of others.

“I would like to emphasize that the speculations of Western and Ukrainian propaganda that Russia allegedly ‘exports hunger’ are completely unfounded. In fact, these are yet another attempt to shift the blame to others,” Lavrov wrote, adding that Russia would live up to obligations in “exports of food, fertilizers, energy and other goods vital for Africa.”

Russia has recently sought to ally itself with Ethiopia — once a steadfast partner of the West. The country now faces strained relations with the United States and Europe due to alleged human rights abuses during the war in Tigray.

Russian officials have used the conspiratorial concept of a “golden billion” elite in the West to seek international support. On Wednesday in Addis Ababa, Lavrov gave a speech to African Union diplomats at the Russian Embassy in the Ethiopian capital where he offered an anti-colonial explanation for Moscow’s decision to invade Ukraine and the subsequent international backlash.

“I am sure the overwhelming majority of world countries do not want to live as if the colonial times (have) come back,” Lavrov said.

While Russia does not have the same colonial legacy in Africa, Moscow has a lengthy relationship with many nations that goes back to Soviet support during the Cold War. Some countries that abstained from the General Assembly votes on Ukraine have allegedly done so based on anti-colonial movements with close links to the Soviet Union, according to one analysis.

Macron’s strongest argument against Russia may be his claim that the country is “one of the last imperial, colonial powers.” Speaking in Benin on Wednesday, the French president said the invasion of Ukraine was “a territorial war, the likes of which we thought had disappeared from European soil. It’s a war from the early 20th, even the 19th century.”

France, however, is in the midst of coming to terms with its presence in West Africa, ending Operation Barkhane — a task force that has tried to combat violent jihadist movements in Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso. Macron said Wednesday that despite this change, France remained “resolutely committed” to security in Africa.

Meanwhile, Russian mercenaries, most notably the Wagner Group, have spread their influence across much of West Africa. The Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington says 18 countries now have a Russian mercenary footprint, with groups like Wagner supporting the controversial 2020 coup d’etat in Mali which led France to draw back from the country.

Contrary to what Macron claimed in his current visit to the continent, the majority of African nations have condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine during the U.N. General Assembly vote in March. The day after the invasion, all three African representatives on the 12-member Security Council voted in favor of a motion to end the war. Russia, a permanent member of the council, vetoed it.

And even before that, Kenyan Ambassador Martin Kimani gave a powerful speech where he likened Russian ambitions to take back Ukrainian land to the colonialism that casts a long shadow over his continent.

“This situation echoes our history,” Kimani said on Feb. 22, echoing Macron’s later comments. “Kenya and almost every African country was birthed by the ending of empire.”

Source: The Washington Post