The Losses and Gains of the African Continent in the Russia-Ukraine Conflict

It astonishes me to see that out of the 54 nations in the African continent, only South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, and Gabon made a neutral comment on the happenings in East Europe. However, there isn't a country that sided with Russia, but it doesn't sound great for the world democracies to keep mum on this issue.

I expected the entire African leaders to rally each other and form a unified and formidable front against Vladimir Putin's approach. I expected them to strongly condemn his regime for this unlawful war on the peaceful people of Ukraine. But they chose to pretend as though women, children, and innocent civilians are not involved.

For example, Vladimir Putin is setting a precarious precedent for other countries to undermine their weakest neighbors. Because as it seems to me, he's ready to wage war at the expense of innocent lives if his dream of reviving the old Soviet Union would be fulfilled. He's feeling stern enough to keep undermining the world order.

Accordingly, this is a conflict that has massive devastating effects on the African continent. As I highlighted in my article, "Chronicles of Russia and Ukraine Conflict," on 5th February 2022 that "the consequences of this conflict would reverberate all around the world, and the developing countries would be the hardest hit."

In the worst-case scenario, countries such as Libya, Egypt, Nigeria, Morocco, and Tunisia, coupled with some Asian countries such as Indonesia, Lebanon, etc would be hit severely because they rely on Russian and Ukrainian wheat exports.

Similarly, reports have it that countries such as South Africa and Kenya that are exporting fruits and tea respectively to Russia would be affected by this war because of the harsh economic sanctions on the Russian Federation.

Moreover, this is a huge setback for Africans studying in these countries because this war will abruptly halt their studies, subjecting their professional careers to limbo, not knowing when or where to resume regular academic activities in person or virtually.

On the other hand, this war is an opportunity for oil-producing countries in Africa such as Nigeria, Angola, Algeria, etc, to make massive gains. Because immediately after the Russian invasion of Ukraine we have seen how the prices soared. However, there would be new costs accompanying these new gains.

Additionally, farmers, too, would largely benefit from this war in the short term because food prices inflation would take a new unprecedented dimension that could affect people even in the remotest areas. But on the contrary, this is a nightmare for the consumers of these commodities because we aren't yet recovered from the Coronavirus pandemic food crisis.

My position on this conflict is that, regardless of the stereotypes surrounding the whole situation, I want the world to wake up and stand in solidarity with the innocent civilians involved in this needless war. I want the world to wake up and genuinely say no to this war.

Moreover, I want people to remember that this is not about us versus them. This is about the bond of humanity that has connected us for as long as we could remember. Therefore, standing in solidarity with the Ukrainian people could help mitigate future great power aggression. 

Most importantly, looking at the current state of affairs in eastern Europe, the world has a responsibility to ensure that this needless war is stopped from reaching a tipping point. The United States and its democratic allies should look at this war beyond their common gains and propose a way that gives both the two countries a mutual understanding and compromises to save millions of innocent lives.

Finally, I believe nobody wants to live in a world where you can't self-determine your future as a nation or individual. Therefore, it's our collective responsibility to ensure that the status quo of the international rules-based system is preserved. Let's make it clear that the world won't condone any great power aggression to the extent of undermining the territorial integrity of sovereign states.