German minister slams Putin on visit to Ethiopian grain warehouse

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock lashed out at Russian President Vladimir Putin during a visit to Ethiopia's largest UN World Food Programme (WFP) grain warehouse, accusing him of escalating the global food crisis.

"The Russian president is using grain, using food as a weapon," she said on Thursday in the Ethiopian city of Adama, adding: "This exacerbates the dramatic food supply situation around the world as droughts have also continued to increase around the world."

Baerbock and her French counterpart Catherine Colonna arrived in Addis Ababa on Thursday morning for a two-day visit to Ethiopia, as the country grapples with a hunger crisis exacerbated by Russia's war on Ukraine.

After meeting Ethiopian President Sahle-Work Zewde, the country's first female president who took office in 2018, they visited the UN World Food Programme warehouse to learn about grain imports from Ukraine and its distribution.

This is why it is "so important that we respond to the brutal Russian war precisely not only with aid for Ukraine, but by significantly increasing our humanitarian aid, our food aid worldwide," Baebrock continued at the warehouse.

Ethiopia is Africa's second most populous state after Nigeria and one of the poorest countries in the world.

After the fifth rainy season in a row failed to materialize, Ethiopia is currently experiencing a dramatic drought. Due to the high dependence on wheat and fertilisers from Ukraine and Russia, experts expect the situation to deteriorate further because of the war.

Some 22 million people in Ethiopia are suffering from hunger and the humanitarian situation is extremely critical, German aid organization Welthungerhilfe told dpa.

The causes of this catastrophe include natural disasters, locust plagues, droughts, floods as well as the pandemic and cholera outbreaks, Abaynah Demeke from the organization's Ethiopian office said.

Baerbock stressed that food is a human right. Germany and France support the Ukrainian export of grain to Ethiopia by financing and organizing its transport, "so that the people of Ethiopia do not also become victims of the Russian war of aggression," she said.

Colonna added: "The people here who are suffering from the drought are not responsible for what is happening in Ukraine. Therefore, we have to help them. This is a humanitarian duty."

The warehouse complex has a capacity of 218,000 tonnes of grain. From Ukraine, 25,000 tonnes of wheat had been delivered via Djibouti at the end of December, where it is awaiting distribution.

The ministers are not only visiting Ethiopia to address its food crisis, but are also showing support for a peace deal signed last year to end two years of brutal civil war. They are scheduled to hold further talks with Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, Foreign Minister Demeke Mekonnen and Justice Minister Gedion Timothewos.

The Ethiopian government reached a peace agreement with the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) in November. Several hundred thousand people have died in the fighting since November 2020, according to UN figures.

The TPLF held regional elections in the northern part of the region despite a ban from the capital Addis Ababa.

Tigray had been largely cut off from the rest of the world for two years as the Ethiopian government shut down telecommunications, banking, electricity and air traffic in the region.

According to the World Health Organization, around 89% of the 7 million Tigray inhabitants do not have sufficient access to food. Almost every third child in the region suffers from malnutrition.

Addressing war crimes which, according to the UN, were committed by the Ethiopian government and the Tigray People's Liberation Front in the two-year conflict, Baerbock said, "We know from our own experience that the path to peace is rarely straight and that coming to terms with human rights crimes is indispensable for reconciliation."

The two ministers will also hold talks with the regional organization African Union (AU), a German Foreign Ministry spokesperson said. A meeting with AU Commission President Moussa Faki Mahamat is scheduled for Friday.