No module named '_rinterface_cffi_abi' on Ubuntu 22.04

Question

I have installed rpy2 via pip and I run into the following issue.

import rpy2.robjects as robjects

returns :

ModuleNotFoundError: No module named '_rinterface_cffi_abi'

I made sure before installing to have R properly installed, my RHOME (and R_HOME just for good measure) setup to /usr/lib/R. I am inside a Python virtual environment. And cffi is on version 1.16.0.

When I run

python3 -m rpy2.situation

I get the following :

rpy2 version:
3.5.15
Python version:
3.8.10 (default, Nov 22 2023, 10:22:35) 
[GCC 9.4.0]
Looking for R's HOME:
    Environment variable R_HOME: /usr/lib/R
    Calling `R RHOME`: /usr/lib/R
    Environment variable R_LIBS_USER: None
R's value for LD_LIBRARY_PATH:
/usr/lib/R/lib:/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu:/usr/lib/jvm/default-java/lib/server
R version:
    In the PATH: R version 4.3.2 (2023-10-31) -- "Eye Holes"
    Loading R library from rpy2: *** Error while loading: No module named '_rinterface_cffi_api' ***
Additional directories to load R packages from:
None
C extension compilation:
  include:
  ['/usr/share/R/include']
  libraries:
  ['R', 'pcre2-8', 'lzma', 'bz2', 'z', 'rt', 'dl', 'm', 'icuuc', 'icui18n']
  library_dirs:
  ['/usr/lib/R/lib']
  extra_compile_args:
  ['-std=c99']
  extra_link_args:
  ['-Wl,--export-dynamic', '-fopenmp', '-Wl,-Bsymbolic-functions', '-Wl,-z,relro']
Directory for the R shared library:
lib
CFFI extension type
  Environment variable: RPY2_CFFI_MODE
  Value: CFFI_MODE.API
  ABI: ABSENT
  API: ABSENT

I was expecting either ABI or API CFFI extension type to be present. I suspect that the absence of this _rinterface_cffi_api module makes the install switch to ABI ode, and that also fails. So why is ABI failing ? ALso, am I missing the required module to access via API using the pip install ?