Only 4 of 55 African leaders attend Zelensky call, showing neutrality on Ukraine and Russia

By Ben Norton (Posted Jun 25, 2022)


Western governments have tried to rally the nations of Africa to join their war on Russia. But the vast majority of the continent has ignored their pressure campaign.

For months, Ukraine attempted to organize a video conference between the African Union and Western-backed leader Volodymyr Zelensky.

France and Germany put heavy pressure on African governments to attend the Zoom call, which was held on June 20.

The conference ended up being a total failure, however. The heads of state of just four of the 55 members of the African Union joined the meeting.

In other words, 93% of the leaders of the African continent did not attend the video conference with Zelensky.

This was a clear sign of Africa’s overwhelming neutrality in the proxy war between the West and Russia.

France’s major newspaper Le Monde described Zelensky’s video call as “an address that the African Union (AU) has delayed for as long as possible and has been keen to keep discreet, almost secret.”

Ukraine had tried to organize the conference since April, but the AU had repeatedly pushed it back.

Le Monde noted that “the organization of the simple video message illustrates the tense relationships between Mr. Zelensky and the leaders of the continent,” who are “sticking to a neutral position.”

Citing an internal source, The Africa Report identified the very few African heads of state who attended the call as Senegal’s President Macky Sall, Côte d’Ivoire’s President Alassane Ouattara, and the Republic of the Congo’s President Denis Sassou Nguesso.

Also at the video conference was Mohamed al-Menfi, the leader of the Libyan Presidential Council, which is recognized by some countries as a legitimate government, although this is disputed by many nations, and Libya has remained territorially divided since a 2011 NATO war destroyed the central state.

At the meeting with Zelensky, these three or four heads of state were joined by Moussa Faki, a politician from Chad who serves as chair of the African Union, and some lower level diplomats of other countries.

The African Union apparently tried to keep the conference as quiet as possible. It did not post anything about the call on its official website. It did not tweet about the meeting either.

The only official recognition of the call came from Faki, in a lone tweet, in which he cautiously “reiterated the AU position of the urgent need for dialogue to end the conflict to allow peace to return to the Region and to restore global stability.”
https://mronline.org/2022/06/25/only-4-of-55-african-leaders-attend-zelensky-call-showing-neutrality-on-ukraine-and-russia/

God1000:
I'm a supporter of Zelensky but he's too small to summon African leaders.

redcliff:
will Buhari even understand what is going on there

Creamypie:
African rulers never steal and loot their nation finish, na eu wahalla dem wan put mouth?

DannyFX2638:
Why you'll love spreading fake news?.

All AU leaders plan to attend but the only problem was that there was no electricity at the time of the conference

DannyFX2638:
Why you'll love spreading fake news?.

All AU leaders plan to attend but[b] the only problem was that there was no electricity at the time of the conference[/b]