MOSCOW: Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday offered free grain to six African countries as he launched a summit with leaders from the continent days after withdrawing from the Ukraine grain export deal.
The two-day summit in Putin’s native Saint Petersburg is being scrutinized as a test of his support in Africa, where he retains backing despite international isolation sparked by his military intervention in Ukraine last year.
Russia last week refused to extend a deal under which Ukrainian grain exports passed through the Black Sea to reach global markets, including Africa, easing pressure on food prices.
In a keynote address at the summit, Putin said Russia could “substitute Ukrainian grain” and promised to send grain to six African countries.
“In the coming months we will be able to ensure free supplies of 25,000 to 50,000 tons of grain to Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe, Mali, Somalia, Central African Republic and Eritrea,” Putin said.
Over a year, the grain deal allowed around 33 million tons of grain to leave Ukrainian ports, helping to stabilize global food prices and avert shortages.
Since the suspension of the agreement attacks have intensified on the southern Odesa region home to Ukraine’s ports — where the Russian army said it hit military infrastructure.
Ukrainian army spokeswoman Nataliya Gumenyuk told AFP that Russia imposed a blockade of “virtually all” its ports “to close Ukraine as a country that can feed the world.”
Gumenyuk said Ukraine needed Western air defense quickly to protect grain facilities from strikes, adding Ukraine “may not have ports anymore” in two or three months.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken pressed African leaders attending the summit to demand answers about the grain disruptions that have propelled poorer nations toward crisis.
“They know exactly who’s to blame for this current situation,” Blinken said of the leaders.
“My expectation would be that Russia will hear this clearly from our African partners,” he said Thursday during a visit to New Zealand.
Seventeen African leaders including South African President Cyril Ramaphosa were expected at the Russia-Africa summit taking place until Friday.
The Kremlin has accused Western countries of trying to prevent African states from participating at the summit, the second of its kind.
On Friday, Putin is set to discuss Ukraine during a working lunch with a group of African heads of state, according to the Kremlin.
The situation in Niger, where President Mohamed Bazoum has been detained by soldiers following a coup bid, is “actively” discussed on the sidelines of the summit, the Kremlin spokesman said.
Russia urged the “rapid release of President Bazoum by the military” in a statement from foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova.
Putin held talks Wednesday with Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, praising their joint energy projects.
Putin also chaired a working breakfast with heads of African regional organizations, and bilateral talks including with Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
Putin gifted Mnangagwa a helicopter, and wished him success in the upcoming elections that analysts expect to be tense.
On the sidelines of the summit, Putin said “fighting has intensified significantly” in the southern Zaporizhzhia region.
Since launching its offensive in Ukraine, Moscow has sought to strengthen ties with Africa by emphasising Russia’s stand against Western “imperialism.”
“The framework in which Russia and Africa interact has seriously changed” with the coronavirus pandemic and the Ukraine conflict, said Vsevolod Sviridov of the Center for African Studies at HSE University.
“It is necessary to find common ground, to explain to each other positions on topical issues, for example, the grain deal,” he told AFP.
Russia’s Wagner mercenary group has been a major player in the security sphere in Africa but its failed mutiny against Russia’s military leadership last month has cast doubt on the future of the group’s operations on the continent.
The summit in Saint Petersburg comes a month ahead of a summit of leaders of the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) due to take place in Johannesburg.
South Africa has said that Putin, who is the subject of an international arrest warrant for his actions in Ukraine, will not be attending in person.
Putin promises free grain at Africa summit
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Putin promises free grain at Africa summit
- Putin held one-on-one talks with Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, and said Russia will more than triple the number of Ethiopian students it hosts and cover their education costs
- Africa’s 54 nations make up the largest voting bloc at the UN and have been more divided than any other region on General Assembly resolutions criticizing Russia’s actions in Ukraine
Zelensky says he’s ready to exchange N. Korean soldiers for Ukrainians held in Russia
KYIV: Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday Kyiv is ready to hand over North Korean soldiers to their leader Kim Jong Un if he can organize their exchange for Ukrainians held captive in Russia.
“In addition to the first captured soldiers from North Korea, there will undoubtedly be more. It’s only a matter of time before our troops manage to capture others,” Zelensky said on the social media platform X.
Zelensky said on Saturday that Ukraine had captured two North Korean soldiers in Russia’s Kursk region, the first time Ukraine has announced the capture of North Korean soldiers alive since their entry into the nearly three-year-old war last autumn.
Ukrainian and Western assessments say that some 11,000 troops from Russia’s ally North Korea have been deployed in the Kursk region to support Moscow’s forces. Russia has neither confirmed nor denied their presence.
Zelensky has said Russian and North Korean forces had suffered heavy losses.
“Ukraine is ready to hand over Kim Jong Un’s soldiers to him if he can organize their exchange for our warriors who are being held captive in Russia,” Zelensky said.
Zelensky posted a short video showing the interrogation of two men who are presented as North Korean soldiers. One of them is lying on a bed with bandaged hands, the other is sitting with a bandage on his jaw.
One of the men said through an interpreter that he did not know he was fighting against Ukraine and had been told he was on a training exercise.
He said he hid in a shelter during the offensive and was found a couple of days later. He said that if he was ordered to return to North Korea, he would, but said he was ready to stay in Ukraine if given the chance.
Reuters could not verify the video.
Zelensky said that for those North Korean soldiers who did not wish to return home, there may be other options available and “those who express a desire to bring peace closer by spreading the truth about this war in the Korean (language) will be given that opportunity.”
Zelensky provided no specific details.
Biden spoke with families of Americans detained in Afghanistan, White House says
- Efforts to secure the release of the Americans continue, a second source familiar with the initiative said on Sunday
WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden spoke on Sunday with the families of three Americans detained in Afghanistan by its Taliban rulers since 2022, and emphasized his commitment to bringing home Americans wrongfully held overseas, the White House said.
Biden’s administration has been negotiating with the Taliban since at least July about a US proposal to release the three Americans — Ryan Corbett, George Glezmann and Mahmood Habibi — in exchange for Muhammad Rahim Al-Afghani, a high-profile prisoner held in Guantanamo Bay, Reuters reported last week, citing a source familiar with the discussions.
Efforts to secure the release of the Americans continue, a second source familiar with the initiative said on Sunday.
Corbett and Habibi were detained in separate incidents in August 2022 a year after the Taliban seized Kabul amid the chaotic US troop withdrawal. Glezmann was detained later in 2022 while visiting as a tourist.
Ahmad Habibi, Mahmood Habibi’s brother, who was on the call on Sunday, welcomed the discussion with Biden.
“President Biden was very clear in telling us that he would not trade Rahim if the Taliban do not let my brother go,” he said. “He said he would not leave him behind. My family is very grateful that he is standing up for my brother.”
The Taliban, which denies holding Habibi, had countered the US proposal with an offer to exchange Glezmann and Corbett for Rahim and two others, one of the sources told Reuters last week.
The White House noted that Biden has brought home more than 75 Americans unjustly detained around the world, including from Myanmar, China, Gaza, Haiti, Iran, Russia, Rwanda, Venezuela and West Africa. His administration also brought home all Americans detained in Afghanistan before the US military withdrawal, it said.
“President Biden and his team have worked around the clock, often in partnership with key allies, to negotiate for the release of Americans held hostage or unjustly detained abroad so that they can be reunited with their families, and will continue to do so throughout the remainder of the term,” it added.
A Senate intelligence committee report on the agency’s so-called enhanced interrogation program called Rahim an “Al-Qaeda facilitator” and said he was arrested in Pakistan in June 2007 and “rendered” to the CIA the following month.
He was kept in a secret CIA “black site,” where he was subjected to tough interrogation methods, including extensive sleep deprivation, and then sent to Guantanamo Bay in March 2008, the report said.
Biden last week sent 11 Guantanamo detainees to Oman, reducing the prisoner population at the detention center in Cuba by nearly half as part of its effort to close the facility as the president prepares to leave office on Jan. 20.
Comoros goes to polls in vote snubbed by opposition
- Critics said Nour’s new powers — which entail approving all decrees issued by ministers and governors — elevate his role to that of de facto prime minister
MORONI: The Indian Ocean nation of Comoros headed to the polls Sunday to elect lawmakers, with many opposition groups planning to snub a vote they say lacks transparency.
Comorian President Azali Assoumani’s eldest son, Nour El-Fath Azali, who is 39 and the country’s secretary general, is running to represent a constituency just outside the capital Moroni.
Several voting booths opened late after material failed to materialize in time, a reporter saw.
One US observer, James Burns, said officials had to “improvise” one booth comprising two panels around a table.
Nearby, another booth consisted of a simple box placed on a chair — making it nigh on impossible to preserve voter privacy as ballots were cast.
Before he was appointed to the post in July 2024, Nour had been a private adviser to his father, 65, a former military ruler who came to power in a 1999 coup.
Critics said Nour’s new powers — which entail approving all decrees issued by ministers and governors — elevate his role to that of de facto prime minister.
Azali was reelected president in January 2024 after a disputed vote followed by two days of deadly protests.
“Thank God, since the beginning of the campaign there has not been any trouble. It’s raining but it’s a blessing,” Azali said after voting in his hometown of Mitsoudje, 15 kilometers south of the capital Moroni.
“I thank the opposition candidates who stood in the elections. We need a constructive opposition,” he added.
Several opposition candidates were standing election to avoid an outcome similar to the boycott of the 2020 legislative vote, which gave free rein to his ruling Convention for the Renewal of the Comoros party, or the CRC.
One man clad in a boubou and kofia, typical Comorian headgear, complained that “I dipped my finger in the inkwell but the ink’s already gone,” showing his index finger with no indelible ink stain.
The CRC is expected to dominate parliament again in this year’s vote, not least as its candidates in some constituencies face no competition.
Thirty-three members of parliament will be elected directly by around 340,000 registered voters in a two-round ballot.
A second round of voting will take place on Feb. 16.
Azali in January 2024 officially won 57 percent of the vote, allowing him to remain in power until 2029.
But the strongman’s opponents said the election was marred by fraud, and court challenges were dismissed.
One person was killed and several others injured in the violence that erupted in the aftermath of the election in the country of some 870,000 people.
Direct commercial flights resume between Rome and Tripoli
- Many airlines suspended flights in and out of Libya since the civil war erupted in 2014
TRIPOLI: Italy’s ITA Airways resumed direct flights to Libya’s Tripoli on Sunday, the first airline from a major west European nation to do so after a 10-year hiatus due to civil war in the north African country, ITA and Tripoli’s transport minister said.
ITA said it would operate two direct flights a week from Rome’s Fiumicino airport to Tripoli’s Mitiga airport.
“We are proud to inaugurate today our first direct commercial flight between Tripoli and Rome Fiumicino, strengthening commercial and cultural ties between Libya and Italy in support of bilateral relations between the two countries,” Andrea Benassi, ITA airways general manager, said in a statement.
Many international airlines have suspended flights in and out of Libya since the civil war in 2014 that spawned two rival administrations in east and west following the NATO-backed uprising that toppled Muammar Qaddafi in 2011.
HIGHLIGHTS
• Some airlines resumed flights to Libya after security was restored when major fighting paused with a ceasefire in 2020.
• But efforts to end the political crisis have failed, with factions occasionally staging armed clashes and competing for control over economic resources.
• The EU still bans Libyan civil aviation from its airspace.
Some airlines resumed flights to Libya after security was restored when major fighting paused with a ceasefire in 2020. But efforts to end the political crisis have failed, with factions occasionally staging armed clashes and competing for control over economic resources.
The EU still bans Libyan civil aviation from its airspace
The minister of transport in the government of national unity, Mohamed Al-Shahoubi, said the resumption of ITA flights between Tripoli and Rome confirmed “the safety and security of our airspace and the eligibility of Libyan airports.”
Shahoubi said at a ceremony marking the arrival of the ITA flight at Mitiga that Tripoli is ready “to grant ITA additional transport rights to connect Libyan airports with other destinations in EU countries.”
Shahoubi said Libya was looking forward to the return of some Gulf countries in the first half of 2025.
He added that the airlines of Tunisia, Egypt, Malta, Turkiye, and Jordan had already resumed direct flights with Libya.
Ivan Bassato, chief aviation officer of Rome’s airports, said the Libya route was a strategic bridge between the two countries.
Flights would strengthen “the positioning of our hub to support the connectivity of Africa, a continent that in 2024 reached a record level exceeding the threshold of 2 million passengers to and from Rome, up 38 percent compared to the previous year.”
Saudi ambassador to Kabul meets Afghan foreign minister, discusses bilateral relations
- The development comes week after the Kingdom’s embassy in Kabul resumed its diplomatic activities in Afghanistan
- Afghan official says the two sides discussed ways to capitalize on existing opportunities to enhance cooperation
ISLAMABAD: Saudi Arabia’s Ambassador to Afghanistan Faisal bin Talaq Al-Baqmi has met Afghan Foreign Minister Mawlawi Amir Khan Muttaqi and discussed with him bilateral relations between the two countries, the Saudi embassy said on Sunday.
The development comes week after the Kingdom’s embassy in the Afghan capital of Kabul resumed diplomatic activities to provide services to the Afghan people.
The Afghan foreign ministry had welcomed Saudi Arabia’s decision to resume diplomatic operations in Kabul, more than three years after Riyadh withdrew its staff during the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan.
The meeting between the Saudi ambassador and the Afghan foreign minister was held in Kabul, according to the Saudi embassy. It was also attended by Deputy Head of Mission Mishaal Mutlaq Al-Shammari.
“The meeting discussed bilateral relations, ways to enhance them, and topics of common interest,” the Saudi embassy said on X.
Hafiz Zia Ahmad, a deputy spokesman at the Afghan foreign ministry, said the meeting underlined matters related to expanding bilateral relations between Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia, delivering consular services to Afghan nationals residing in the Kingdom, and capitalizing on existing opportunities to enhance cooperation.
“FM Muttaqi underscored the need to increase the exchange of delegations between the two countries,” Ahmad said on X. “Additionally, FM Muttaqi also expressed hope that the Saudi government would consider increasing the quota for Hajj & Umrah for Afghan pilgrims & extending support for the provision of consular services to Afghan nationals residing in Saudi Arabia.”
The Saudi ambassador affirmed the Kingdom’s commitment to extending support to Afghans and said the resumption of diplomatic activities in Kabul was aimed at “maximizing all the existing opportunities available,” Ahmad added.
Ties between Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan date back to 1932, when the Kingdom became the first Islamic country to provide aid to the Afghan people during their ordeals.
In recent years, Saudi Arabia has launched numerous projects in Afghanistan through the King Salman Humanitarian Aid & Relief Center (KSrelief), focusing on health, education services, water and food security. Riyadh has also participated in all international donor conferences and called for establishing security and stability in Afghanistan following years of armed conflicts.
Saudi Arabia has continued to provide consular services in Afghanistan since November 2021 and provided humanitarian aid through KSrelief.
