How Ukraine war affects Africa: AfDB President Adesina highlights dangers

As many analysts look into how Ukraine war affects Africa, the President of the African Development Bank, Akinwumi Adesina, has warned that many African countries may face food riots and political crises due to the war.

He gave this warning during an exclusive interview with The Telegraph, which was published on the AfDB’s website on Tuesday.

Adesina warned that the war would have global ramifications, stressing the need for an end to the war.

He said, “This war has to come to an end. It’s not just a war in Ukraine. It’s a war that has global ramifications.

“The price of wheat has gone up by 62 per cent since the beginning of the war. The price of maize has gone up by 36 per cent. The price of soya beans by 29 per cent. Now the price of fertilisers, which are very, very critical for food productions, has gone up by 300 per cent – that’s three times.”

“And when you couple that with energy prices that are also rising in many African countries, you can see that this is driving inflation. If urgent action is not taken, it could lead to a food crisis in Africa.”

On how the Ukraine war affects Africa, Adesina said the war in Ukraine poses a severe challenge to Africa, which is deeply reliant on cereals imports from Ukraine and Russia.

According to Adesina, the rising food and energy prices could have serious political repercussions for many African countries.

The AfDB boss said, “That keeps me very worried…We may have some food riots because people can’t survive like that.”

“We saw what happened in Tunisia. The Arab Spring came just because of that. If we don’t bring the prices down very quickly, it creates a risk of fragility in already very tense political situations in many African countries.”

He also said that the increased price of liquefied gas would push more Africans to return to cooking with charcoal, which is far more polluting and tremendously damaging for the health.

He further stressed the need for financing Africa for food sufficiency.

“We have what it takes. We need financing to feed Africa and avert a food crisis,” Adesina said