The 4 African nations that stayed away from UN vote condemning Russia

The quartet were: Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea and Sao Tome e Principe.

Eighteen others were present but abstained from casting a vote at all, meaning as many as 32 African countries voted in favour of the resolution that garnered 143 YES votes, 5 NO votes and 35 ABSTENTIONS.

A UN statement on the outcome of the vote read: "The results were 143 Member States in favour, with five voting against, and 35 abstentions. The countries who voted against were Belarus, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Nicaragua, Russia and Syria.

"A majority of those countries abstaining were African nations, alongside China and India.

"The resolution “defending the principles” of the UN Charter, notes that the regions of Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia are temporarily occupied by Russia as a result of aggression, violating Ukraine’s territorial integrity, sovereignty and political independence," it added.

The abstaining nations were: Burundi, Central African Republic, Congo Republic, Eritrea, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Guinea and Lesotho.

Completing the list were: Mali, Mozambique, South Africa, South Sudan, Sudan, Togo, Uganda, Tanzania and Zimbabwe.

SARA