Africa May Take Leading Mediation Role In Ukraine War. But Can It Deliver The Goods?
Updated: May 20, 2023
Africa | Rest Of The World May 17, 2023
As the so-called West abandons diplomacy and dialogue in the ongoing war between Ukraine and Russia in favor of fuelling it by supplying all sorts of lethal weapons to Ukraine and wishing Russia to lose it and weaken militarily, a peace plan aimed at stopping the war has been proposed by Africa. That was reported by some media.
According to the reports, the proposed peace plan by which Africa may assume a leading mediation role in the bloody armed conflict, is a brainchild of six African countries, namely South Africa, Zambia, Egypt, Uganda, Congo-Brazzaville, and Senegal. The plan was announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa on May 16, 2023.
Reportedly, President Ramaphosa has made telephone presentation of the proposed peace plan to Ukraine and Russia, and that both countries have shown significant interest in it. As such, in the coming days, President Ramaphosa will lead a delegation of some leaders from the above six countries on a peace mission to Ukraine and Russia to discuss further the proposed peace plan.
Incredible global move by Africa, no doubt about that. However, it remains to be seen how the African proposed peace plan will deliver peace in Ukraine given the obviously wide divergence in requirements for peace that have been expressed by Ukraine and Russia.
On the one hand, Ukraine has lately put it crystal clear that for peace to happen, Russia must leave Ukraine including Crimea.
On the other hand, Russia has repeatedly said that Crimea and four more regions in Eastern Ukraine it recently annexed are integral part of the Russian Federation and will remain that way forever!
With these opposing and rigid stances about the war by the warring parties, the African peace initiative while good attempt may be mission impossible!
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