Western countries are deliberately whipping up the situation around the grain crisis in Africa amid the suspension of the grain deal, Alieu Tunkara, a member of the Malian parliament, told Sputnik on Tuesday, adding that food security in Africa is currently satisfactory.
"There is no doubt that Africa needs grain, but the situation is not as catastrophic as the West claims, they are escalating the situation intentionally. I look at the suspension of the grain deal as a temporary difficulty, the situation is calm right now," Tunkara said on the sidelines of the Russian-African conference of the Valdai Discussion Club, which opened earlier on Tuesday in Russia's St. Petersburg.
The lawmaker added that African countries have come to understand that they should not rely on other nations to ensure their food security, and instead should work toward increasing investment in the local agriculture sector and cooperate with friendly states on technology to increase national production.
On July 18, the Black Sea Grain Initiative, which provided for a humanitarian corridor to allow exports of Ukrainian grain over the past year, expired, as Russia did not extend its participation. Moscow has been repeatedly critical of the fact that the deal's provisions pertaining to Russia had not been fulfilled and that most of the supplies were ending up in rich European countries.
On Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Russia would replace Ukrainian grain and gave assurances that Moscow would continue to supply grain and fertilizers to African countries despite sanctions.