**Chad’s request comes as the AU chairperson, the AU commission chairman, and the Russian President are slated to meet on Friday. The African leaders will arbitrate the conflict in Ukraine and debate the release of grain and fertilizer inventories that have been halted, affecting importing countries.
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On Thursday, Chad declared a national food emergency.
In a decree signed by Mahamat Idriss Déby, the military transition head, the government calls on “all national and international partners to assist the populace.”
There will be a “continuous deterioration of the food and nutritional condition, as well as a growing risk” of food scarcity if the Sahelian nation is not helped.
Last year, the United Nations assessed that 5.5 million Chadians, or more than a third of the population, required immediate humanitarian assistance. Following the war in Ukraine, the situation has only become worse.
Russia and Ukraine were the world’s second and third cereal exporters in 2020, according to the Observatory of Economic Complexity (OEC). Africa purchased 4 billion dollars worth of agricultural products from Russia in the same year. This is especially true in Maghreb countries who rely on Russian and Ukrainian wheat. Imports account for more than half of the total. Southern Africa is not immune; Zambia and Zimbabwe, for example, are expected to suffer economic consequences. All fertilizers used in the country are supplied by Russian enterprises to the bank.
Chad’s request for assistance comes as the AU chairperson and the chairman of the AU commission meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday in an attempt to mediate in the Ukraine conflict and discuss the release of grain and fertilizer stocks that have been blocked, affecting countries that rely heavily on imports.
In a message sent to European leaders meeting in Brussels on Tuesday, Senegalese President Macky Sall urged them to do everything possible “to liberate the grain stocks available” in Ukraine, which are being held hostage by Russia’s Black Sea blockade, which prevents access to the port of Odessa. “The cataclysmic scenario of shortages and broad price increases,” Sall said. The impact of Western sanctions on Russia was also brought up by the Senegalese president.
With the exclusion of a number of Russian banks from the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications (SWIFT) banking system, it has become more difficult for African countries to pay for their commodities.
