- There are 16 landlocked countries in Africa with a combined estimated population of 378 million people.
- Mudavadi said geo-strategic constraints that landlocked countries face are increasingly becoming major drivers of conflicts on the continent.
Image: PCSP
Kenya has advocated for the establishment of a contact group that will seek to address geographic constraints landlocked countries in Africa face.
Prime Cabinet Secretary and Cabinet Secretary for Foreign and Diaspora Affairs Musalia Mudavadi said the group will seek to address concerns of the 16 landlocked African countries and look into conflicts related to maritime access.
“There are 16 landlocked countries in Africa with a combined estimated population of 378 million people,” Mudavadi noted.
Mudavadi named the current Red Sea waterway crisis which has left many East African States affected economically and security wise.
“When the cost of shipping, freight insurance, and goods goes up due to the Red Sea crisis, the impact is possibly double for the landlocked states that rely on the coastal countries,” he highlighted.
Mudavadi made the remarks in a speech he delivered at United States International University, Nairobi on “Kenya’s grand strategy in a changing world.”
Mudavadi said geo-strategic constraints that landlocked countries face are increasingly becoming major drivers of conflicts on the continent.
He said the world must confront the uncomfortable truth that Africa’s conflicts and crises are often relegated to the sidelines of international meetings.
“As of 2023, over 37 million people had been forcibly displaced in Africa. In the period between February 2019 and February 2024, the UNHCR reports that conflict fatalities from selected African countries reached 208,000. Further, conflicts continue to be major drivers of the food crisis in Africa,” Mudavadi said.
He noted that over 121 million Africans are facing severe acute food insecurity, and 82 per cent of this number are in conflict-affected countries.
He added that crises on the continent have led to the damage and closure of thousands of schools translating into an estimated 98 million children in Africa being out of school, the majority of them in conflict areas.
“Kenya stands for global solidarity, equity, fairness, and collective security where crises receive equal attention," he said.
"Kenya supports the view that security threats in one part of the world should be treated as a threat to the entire world and all actors should collectively address it. So, in the shadow of global conflicts, let us not forget the silent suffering of our own people in Africa."