The announcement by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa to send an African peace mission to Ukraine and Russia surprised many African diplomats, as preparations are being carried out by the Brazzaville Foundation, created and directed by the French Jean-Yves Olivier.
The announcement was made on Tuesday May 16 by Cyril Ramaphosa. According to the South African President, kyiv and Moscow gave their agreement to host a delegation led by the Heads of State of Zambia, Senegal, Congo-Brazzaville, Uganda, Egypt, and South Africa. But since, radio silence. Contacted, the officials of the states concerned do not wish to speak for the moment. ” In this type of negotiation, a detail can call everything into question “, indicates a minister.
It is therefore in parallel with the usual diplomatic frameworks that this mission project was set up. With, at the heart of its presidential networks, the Brazzaville Foundation, created in 2015 and chaired by the Frenchman Jean-Yves Ollivier. The businessman made his fortune trading raw materials all over the world, particularly in Africa, where he has forged strong ties with decision-makers for four decades. From the former Ivorian president Félix Houphouët-Boigny to the president of Congo-Brazzaville Denis Sassou-Nguesso via the Angolan José dos Santos, Jean-Yves Ollivier is a regular at presidential palaces. ” I devoted myself to business and politics caught up with me », he explained to RFI in 2014.
shadow actor
Close to President Jacques Chirac, Jean-Yves Olivier worked behind the scenes in South Africa during apartheid and then with Nelson Mandela, in the DRC, the Comoros and even Sudan. In 2020, it also organized in Lomé a conference on the fight against counterfeit drugs with seven heads of state from the continent. ” We know today that trafficking corrupts from the grassroots to the highest level of the state, that it also feeds terrorism “, he said at the end of the event.
And it is therefore once again its foundation that is at the origin of this peace mission project made official by Cyril Ramaphosa. By coordinating this project with six African presidents, Jean-Yves Ollivier breaks diplomatic codes and tackles an international challenge. If the presidents Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky accepted the idea, the most difficult remains to organize it. It will therefore now be necessary to launch new negotiations in order toestablish a common timetable between six African Heads of State and Presidents Putin and Zelensky. According to our information, this peace mission is planned over four days with the end of June as the deadline. The only certainty: if it is held, the mission will stop first in kyiv and then in Moscow.
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