President Paul Kagame has said that effects of the Ukraine war have hit Africa harder than any part of the world and that the continent needs a proper strategy to mitigate further effects.
He made the observation as he addressed a press conference on Wednesday at Village Urugwiro where he said that the Ukraine situation has "turned things more less upside down".
"There are so many things going wrong at the beginning...the problems there are worse as we speak. What is happening has a lot of dimensions. It has changed things."
Russia attacked Ukraine in February 2022 which has since affected the global economy leading to rising food prices especially for serials that were being important from both countries.
According to Kagame, the war in Ukraine has also had its toll on the global political order.
"To be honest Africa or the African union needs to think about this very seriously and as a continent, we need to have a strategy of how to deal with many things originating from that problem," Kagame said.
Ukraine is a major exporter wheat and accounts for a large chunk of the produce consumed in Africa and other parts of the world. Due to the conflict, supply chain for the Ukrainian wheat was greatly disrupted, leading to soaring prices globally.
Apart from agricultural products, Ukraine and Russia are major oil producers, and any disruption in that sector affects global oil prices.
With Africa being heavily affected, President Kagame pointed out that, "Africa is marginalised and has no say at all to whatever that is happening in that part of the world. It's the big players that have what to say. Whatever they are doing, some we understand, others we do not understand, Africa is just there."
He observed that Africa is probably being hit hardest and that countries are beginning to experience hardship originating from the effects of that situation, directly and indirectly.
"We (Africans) are already in a weak position of how to deal with our own challenges let alone challenges originating from the outside. For Africa, I hate to see it as somehow a continent floating on top of the sea that can drown any time things go wrong. I hate to believe that this is the state of affairs that we would be thinking or preparing for except that the preparation is not there," said Kagame.
