BURKINA Faso says it has received 25,000 tonnes of free wheat from Russia.
Confirming the news on Friday, one minister called the delivery a “priceless gift”.
Ties between Moscow and Ouagadougou have been strengthening since the military took power in two successive coups in 2022.
Last month Russia re-opened its embassy in Burkina Faso, which been closed since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Burkina Faso has at the same time been distancing itself from former colonial power France, and last year it ordered its troops to leave.
Burkina Faso is one of the world’s most-neglected crises, humanitarians say.
About a quarter of all children under five have stunted growth, according to UN data, and more than three million people face acute food shortages.
The West African nation is battling a years-long Islamist insurgency that has forced more than two million people from their homes. One in four schools are closed because it is too dangerous for children to risk going.
So severe is Burkina Faso’s security crisis that some citizens welcomed the military coups two years ago, and hoped for an end to the violence and upheaval.
Yet the military junta has failed to deliver on its early promises to tackle Islamist militants, and the latter still control large swathes of the country.
