At a press briefing on the sidelines of a state visit to Abidjan in Ivory Coast, Congolese President Denis Sassou Nguesso said on Monday that Africa could not “remain silent or indifferent” to the conflict in Ukraine.
His comments come just a few days ahead of mediation by several of the continent’s heads of state in Kiev and Moscow.
Indeed, Mr. Sassou Nguesso is part of a mission of several African presidents due to travel to Kiev and Moscow on Friday and Saturday, where they will meet Volodymyr Zelensky and then Vladimir Putin.
According to a diplomatic source, the delegation includes Cyril Ramaphosa (South Africa), Macky Sall (Senegal), Yoweri Museveni (Uganda), Hakainde Hichilema (Zambia), Abdel Fattah al-Sissi (Egypt) and Azali Assoumani (Comoros and current President of the African Union).
In this context, the Congolese President said on Monday that the delegation would carry “a message of peace, or at least appeasement” to “make the belligerents understand the suffering caused by this war to the weak peoples of the world, and in particular to the peoples of Africa”.
During his visit to Abidjan, thirteen cooperation agreements were signed on Monday between the two countries in sectors such as agriculture, security, and transport.