Russia has donated 25,000 tons of grain to Burkina Faso as part of a humanitarian aid initiative, Russian Ambassador Alexey Saltykov confirmed on Friday.
A ceremony marking the arrival of the wheat took place in Ouagadougou, the capital of the African country.
“All 25,000 tons of grain were delivered to Burkina Faso from the port of Abidjan [in the Ivory Coast (Cote d’Ivoire)],” Saltykov told TASS.
“It will be distributed to the needy population, especially the widows of the defenders of Burkina Faso, as well as the disabled.”
The ambassador said national representatives in Burkina Faso had thanked Russian President Vladimir Putin for the aid, which “will improve the humanitarian situation in the country.”
The ceremony was attended by Minister of Communications, Culture, Art and Tourism Rimtalba Jean Emmanuel Ouedraogo, and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Regional Cooperation and Burkina Faso Abroad Karamoko Jean-Marie Traore.
Burkina Faso is the latest African country to receive humanitarian shipments of wheat from Russia.
Last December, Moscow sent an initial consignment of 25,000 tons of grain to Burkina Faso. At the second Russia-Africa summit last year, Moscow promised to provide free wheat to Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe, Mali, Somalia, Chad, and Eritrea.
Meanwhile, Uralchem CEO Dmitry Konyaev has announced that the manufacturer will begin unloading humanitarian fertilizer shipments in Nigeria in the coming days.
“Unloading of this humanitarian [shipment] in Nigeria is expected to start soon,” he said during a meeting of the business council ‘Russia-Nigeria’.
A wide range of issues related to the development of foreign trade cooperation between Russia and Nigeria were discussed at the meeting, the press service of the Uralchem Group reported.
On December 28, the company also announced that more than 34,000 metric tons of potash had been loaded at Ventspils port in Latvia, and it is currently on its way to Nigeria.
Uralchem is responding to the UN’s second sustainable development goal of ending hunger, achieving food security, improving nutrition, and promoting sustainable agriculture.