Ahmad 
At a time when the African continent is suffering from a severe food security crisis, Russian Agriculture Minister Dmitry Patrushev announced that Russia has completed its initiative to ship 200,000 tons of free grain to six African countries.
This development comes in response to President Vladimir Putin’s promise in July last year, and according to Minister Patrushev, his country shipped 50,000 tons each to Somalia and the Central African Republic, and 25,000 each to Mali, Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe, and Eritrea.
Africa’s food crisis has been dramatically exacerbated by geopolitical tensions and economic sanctions, with nearly 60 percent of Africa’s population now facing severe food shortages, a situation exacerbated by the continent’s rapid population growth that exceeds available resources and makes it dependent on food imports, and with geopolitical strategies unfolding, and Russia intervening to help African food security amid Western sanctions, it is necessary to reassess priorities and make an urgent cooperative effort to address the root causes of this crisis. The future of Africa’s food security depends on sustainable solutions that prioritize investment in agriculture, strengthening food sovereignty, and a balanced approach to managing the continent’s rapid demographic changes.
Practically, in July 2022, Russia and Ukraine signed a grain agreement under the auspices of the United Nations and Turkish mediation, with the aim of ensuring the shipment of Ukrainian grain stranded in ports through the Black Sea, and the agreement, officially known as the “Black Sea Grain Transport Initiative”, was extended several times, and the importance of the agreement is due to Ukraine’s location in the global grain market, as it is one of the largest suppliers of grain and 400 million people worldwide depend on Ukrainian grain, according to World Food Program figures, but the Kremlin The agreement was suspended in July 2023, due to the lack of agreement with the international side to implement the Russian conditions, as Moscow accused Ukraine of importing weapons under the cover of grain movement to the world.
Several media reports have highlighted since the beginning of the implementation of the grain agreement that shipments do not reach the neediest countries, as the loads according to those reports were “animal feed” at first, and later wheat shipments went to Europe, as the bulk of Ukrainian grain exports are heading to develop agricultural sectors in richer countries.
During the economic forum in Vladivostok held in September last year, President Putin accused the West of “colonialism” and proposed to reconsider the agreement that lifted the Russian blockade on Ukrainian ports, allowing safe passage of ships, and Putin highlighted a serious flaw in the implementation of this agreement, as most of the Ukrainian grain exported to European Union countries was sent instead of poor countries that were supposed to be helped, noting that the grain is intended for the poorest people in the world to alleviate the President Putin highlighted the stark misallocation of resources, with only a small portion of Ukrainian grain shipments arriving through the designated corridor to the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), leaving the global hunger crisis unresolved.
The establishment of a grain supply corridor to alleviate famine in vulnerable areas was employed from the outset to support agricultural practices in richer countries, such as Spain’s pig farming industry, illustrating the failure to meet the urgent needs of the world’s poorest people, but also raising concerns about the priorities and mechanisms for distributing global food aid.
In July of 2023, Russia confirmed its ability to replace Ukrainian grain exports to Africa, and its readiness to supply free grain to 6 countries on the continent within three or four months, and the Russian president assured African leaders that he would give them tens of thousands of tons of grain despite Western sanctions imposed on Russia, sanctions that he said impede the export of grain and fertilizers, and at the same summit the work plan of the Russian-African Partnership Forum for the period from 2023 to 2026 was adopted, during which Conclusion of a number of agreements, contracts and other documents in various spheres of Russian-African cooperation.
In practice, the alternative lines of the Ukrainian grain export agreement appeared in September last year, where negotiations began with a Turkish effort to reach a new grain transport agreement based on two main factors that form the essence of the agreement signed with Russia, namely Turkish supervision that ensures that exports reach poor countries, and Qatari funding for this process, and commenting on these negotiations between President Putin at a summit with President Erdogan in Stochy last year. His country’s readiness to work with the State of Qatar and Turkey to transport grain to many African countries, considering the Qatari-Turkish path to deliver grain to needy countries as an “additional mechanism” for the Black Sea Initiative, without being an alternative to it.
The Russian president also renewed his country’s adherence to its positions on the agreement to export grain through the Black Sea, reiterating Moscow’s link to the return to it by the international community meeting its conditions, accusing the West of “cheating”, and holding them responsible for stopping the agreement, for his part, the Turkish president stressed that Qatar already provides endeavors, financial assistance and financing in particular for transport operations to African countries, expressing his hope that the Russian president will respond quickly to the process of transporting grain to 6 African countries in need, and that it is possible to reach Compromises that allow grain shipments to be sent to those countries.
Despite all the initiatives, the African continent needs sustainable food security, which requires the African Union countries to find a path for their relations with governments capable of neutralizing the issue of food from political conflicts, as the continent has been suffering for decades from the effects of drought and political conflicts, in addition to the looting that took place over a century of depleting its resources from the countries that colonized it.
Written by Mazen Bilal