Sanctions Block Russian Aid to WFP, Leaving Thousands Without Food Assistance: FAO Regional Office

Anti-Russian sanctions prevented the transfer of millions of dollars in Russian contributions to the World Food Program (WFP), leaving thousands of people without food aid, the head of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Liaison Office in Russia, Oleg Kobyakov, told Sputnik Africa at a press briefing to mark the branch's 10th anniversary and the upcoming 80th anniversary of the organization.

"Russia is an important contributor to WFP, and the sanctions imposed on financial transactions did not allow last year to transfer very important Russian contributions of several dozens of millions of dollars to the WFP account. […] Several thousands, probably hundreds of thousands of people were deprived of food aid due to this factor," Kobyakov stated.

Meanwhile, Russia seeks to strengthen its role in supporting Africa through technical assistance, scientific cooperation, and fostering dialogue to boost agricultural development on the continent, the head of the FAO office in Russia pointed out.

"[Russia] takes an active part in the elaboration and strategy and practical measures aimed at providing technical assistance also to African countries, and creating a scientific base and coordinating policy approaches to assistance to African countries is a very important mission. Besides, we at FAO have been following the effort by the Russian Federation to establish a constant platform of a dialog with Africa," he said.

On the same point, Russia's Deputy Permanent Representative to the FAO, Dilara Ravilova-Borovik, told Sputnik Africa at the press conference that due to sanctions, the WFP cannot receive Russia's contribution to its account because the funds are frozen in US banks, which politicizes humanitarian aid and violates international principles.

"From our point of view, it's an absolutely crazy situation because this is like a politicization of humanitarian aid, not from the WFP side, but from the countries that use the sanctions against my country [Russia] to stop the humanitarian work. From our point of view, this is absolutely a violation of the principles of international humanitarian aid," Ravilova-Borovik said.

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While UN agencies such as the WFP are facing severe budget shortfalls because they are denied access to Russian funds, humanitarian aid, especially food, medicine, and some other emergency assistance, cannot be "objects to play with," she emphasized.

The problem goes beyond the WFP and affects many other humanitarian organizations, such as UNICEF and FAO, Ravilova-Borovik added, urging a priority to resolve the impact of sanctions on humanitarian aid globally.

"But this is not a secret that this program of the contribution, not only for the WFP budget, is the same problem with many, many other human organizations and not only the UN Development Program or others; these are humanitarian organizations, especially like UNICEF, like FAO, like WFP, and many others. So our task is to put this problem in the front line of the international agenda," the official concluded.