Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has had an impact on Africa as well, where, according to German Minister for Development Svenja Schulze, Moscow is “trying to destabilise entire regions.”
The minister who is currently on a 5-day tour in West Africa said, the impact of the war was not only to be suffered by Ukraine but also by the ‘world’s poorest’.
In an interview with dpa in Abidjan, he mentioned that “this wasn’t only an attack on Ukraine but also an attack on the world’s poorest.”
“The shock waves of the war and the high prices for food, fertiliser, and energy have also reached West Africa and many other countries in the Global South,” the minister said ahead of the anniversary of the beginning of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Friday.
“Germany needed friends and allies everywhere,” Schulze said, adding that “Russia is also active in Africa and attempting to destabilise entire regions.”
Berlin, minister Svenja Schulze said they hadn’t forgotten the poorest nations, even though Ukraine has the most of their attention now, but they are doing all they can to expand their aid to Africa.
“The rest of the world, we have not dialled down our support for the poorest nations but expanded it,” the development minister said.
“We seek to strengthen and stabilise societies with our development programmes,” she added.
During their five-day trip to West Africa, Schulze and Hubertus Heil, the German Labor Minister, hope to promote more favourable working conditions and less environmental harm.
They will be in Ivory Coast, where they intend to visit a cocoa plantation, until Friday after spending two days in Ghana, where they among other things visited one of the biggest markets for secondhand clothing in the world.