A bulk carrier delivering 25,000 tons of free grain to Eritrea was received in the port of Massawa by Russia’s ambassador to the country, Igor Mozgo, on Thursday.
Mozgo told RT that the supply was certainly important, not only for Eritrea, located in the Horn of Africa, but for all countries of the continent.
“This action shows that Russia, unlike the West, does not just talk, it keeps its promises,” the ambassador stated, adding that Russian president Vladimir Putin's committment to supplying Eritrea with free grain is crucial to ensuring the country’s food security.
“The so-called ‘Western democracies’, which no longer shake hands in many African nations, are losing their attractiveness, their influence in African countries. Africans want to pursue an independent policy; they could be ordered around much less often,” Igor Mozgo said.
Along with the ambassador, a representative from the country’s Red Sea Trading Corporation, A. Zekarias, and the general manager of the Massawa port, Efrem Mekkonen, were present at the grain shipment arrival as well.
Last November, Somalia received 25,000 tons of humanitarian wheat from Russia, while a ship loaded with the same amount of free grain for Burkina Faso arrived at a transit port in West Africa last month.
Moscow has pledged to provide food assistance to African nations that suffer from hunger crises as part of an agreement announced by President Vladimir Putin at the Russia-Africa summit in St. Petersburg in July.
Russian Agriculture Minister Dmitry Patrushev announced in November that up to 200,000 tons of grain would be delivered to six African countries facing food insecurity – Somalia, Burkina Faso, Eritrea, Zimbabwe, Mali, and the Central African Republic.
Russia made the alternative arrangement to supply free wheat to African countries after withdrawing from the Black Sea Grain Initiative, which had been organized by the UN and Türkiye in 2022 to facilitate Ukrainian grain exports to world markets, particularly to poorer countries. Moscow accused Western countries of failing to meet their obligations under the agreement, such as lifting sanctions that prevented Russian agricultural exports.