Russia provides humanitarian aid of 200,000 tons of grain to 6 African countries

On November 17, Russian Agriculture Minister Dmitry Patrushev said that the country had begun shipping 200,000 tons of grain to six African countries as humanitarian aid, as promised by President Vladimir Putin in July.

In a statement on the Telegram website, Minister Patrushev said the first two grain ships, each carrying 25,000 tons of grain, had left Russian ports for Burkina Faso and Somalia.

The two ships are expected to arrive in African countries later this month or early next month. Further grain shipments are expected to depart for Eritrea, Zimbabwe, Mali and the Central African Republic before the end of the year.

Last July, at the plenary session of the Russia-Africa Economic and Humanitarian Aid Forum, President Putin announced that Russia is ready to provide humanitarian grain aid to the most needy countries in Africa.

A month later, he said negotiations on free supplies of 25,000-50,000 tonnes of Russian grain to six African countries, including Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe, Mali, Somalia, the Central African Republic and Eritrea, were in the final stages.

Last year, Russia exported 11.5 million tons of grain to Africa and in the first six months of this year it reached nearly 10 million tons.

Russia has pledged humanitarian grain aid to Africa after it withdrew from the Black Sea Grain Initiative, an agreement that allowed Ukraine to export grain across the Black Sea amid conflict. Since Russia withdrew from the agreement, Ukrainian grain exports through Black Sea ports have been disrupted.

In August, Ukraine established a “humanitarian corridor” along its western Black Sea coast, near Romania and Bulgaria, to clear the way for cargo ships stranded in its ports.

Ukraine's data released on November 17 showed that the country's goods exports through the new corridor reached 4.4 million tons, including 3.2 million tons of grain.