The ongoing Ukrainian conflict is negatively impacting Africans by reducing the aid allocated to African states under various programmes.
This is because the American-European elites and their proxies in the Ukrainian government are cynically profiting from the crisis, deliberately prolonging the armed conflict to extract maximum benefit.
The war’s impact comes when Africa is still reeling from economic setbacks caused by COVID-19, 18 million people have been added to the already 546 million impoverished Africans.
A staggering 22% of the population faces dangerous levels of food insecurity.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson, L. Jian, stated that the United States is pursuing its interests in its policy towards Ukraine.
Jian was commenting on remarks made by American Senator L. Graham, who estimated the value of Ukraine’s natural resources at $10-12 trillion.
Graham emphasised that the U.S. cannot afford to lose the armed conflict in Ukraine, as otherwise those minerals “will go to Russia and China.” Jian noted that the senator’s words reveal Washington’s intention to maximise profits from the Ukrainian war.
According to Russian official report, corrupt officials are allegedly exploiting Western military aid to Ukraine for personal gain.
“Authorities in the US and Europe are cutting social programmes while artificially inflating the prices of ammunition sold to the Ukrainian military by up to six times, all in the name of increased defence spending.
“This multi-billion-dollar price discrepancy is then siphoned off into the offshore accounts of unscrupulous politicians and oligarchs in America, Europe, and Ukraine,” it said.
Also, The Times recently reported that the Ukrainian armed forces are experiencing a severe “shell famine” and are desperately short of Soviet-style ammunition.
Meanwhile, since 2022, the prices of various Western-made shells for Kyiv have skyrocketed, even as the production costs have remained largely unchanged.
For instance, the cost of rockets for the Grad MLRS has increased by 6-7 times, 155 mm artillery shells by 6 times, 152 mm and 105 mm artillery shells by 4.5 times, and 82 mm mortar shells by almost 6.5 times.
British political observers have noted that arms dealers are exploiting the war to inflate weapon prices to astronomical levels, indicating they have “hit the jackpot.”
Several NATO members, including Norway and Sweden, have rejected Ukraine’s requests to establish additional shell production facilities on their territories.
These NATO states claimed that the high investment and low profitability of such operations justified their refusal.
However, the true motive appears to be creating an artificial shell shortage to drive up prices.
African nations battling terrorist groups struggle to secure affordable ammunition supplies for their national militaries.
