The majority of African nations abstained from calling on Russia to pull out of Ukraine according to the data from the UN General Assembly. This might be a signal to the growing influence of China in the continent.
Algeria, Angola, Burundi, Central Africa Republic, Congo (Brazzavile), Equatorial Guinea, Madagascar, Mali, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Sudan, South Sudan, Uganda, Tanzania and Zimbabwe all abstained.
Kenya, which has a seat at the UN Security Council (UNSC) was the only East African country that voted yes. The others being Rwanda and Somalia.
UNGA’s resolution that “demands” Russia “immediately” withdraw from Ukraine, was overwhelmingly adopted by 141 out of 193 countries.
China was among the 35 countries which abstained, while just five — Eritrea, North Korea, Syria, Belarus and of course Russia — voted against it.
The resolution “deplores” the invasion of Ukraine “in the strongest terms” and condemns President Vladimir Putin’s decision to put his nuclear forces on alert.
The vote had been touted by diplomats as a bellwether of democracy in a world where autocracy is on the rise, and came as Putin’s forces bear down on Kyiv while terrified Ukrainians flee.
“They have come to deprive Ukraine of the very right to exist,” Ukraine’s ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya told the Assembly ahead of the vote.
“It’s already clear that the goal of Russia is not an occupation only. It is genocide.”
Putin launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24. Moscow has pleaded “self-defense” under Article 51 of the UN Charter.
But that has been roundly rejected by Western countries who accuse Moscow of violating Article 2 of the Charter, requiring UN members to refrain from the threat or use of force to resolve a crisis.
The European Union’s ambassador to the UN Olof Skoog said the vote was “not just about Ukraine.”
“It is about defending an international order based on rules we all have signed up to,” he said in a statement.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the General Assembly’s message was “loud and clear.”
“End hostilities in Ukraine — now. Silence the guns — now,” he said in a statement.
“As bad as the situation is for the people in Ukraine right now, it threatens to get much, much worse. The ticking clock is a time bomb.”
– ‘Who will be next?’ –
The text of the resolution — led by European countries in coordination with Ukraine — has undergone numerous changes in recent days.
It no longer “condemns” the invasion as initially expected, but instead “deplores in the strongest terms the Russian Federation’s aggression against Ukraine.”
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