Status: 03/30/2022 07:14
The UN World Food Program warns of a food shortage as a result of the war in Ukraine. This spells a “disaster” especially for crisis regions like Yemen or East Africa. Western countries blame Russia for this.
According to the World Food Program (WFP), the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine will have catastrophic consequences for the world’s food supply. Speaking to the UN Security Council in New York, WFP Director David Beasley said that already high food costs had risen again. The war caused “a catastrophe on top of a catastrophe”. WFP is already cutting food aid to those in need.
UN Food Chief Beasley: “Aid to eight million needy people in Yemen has already halved”
Tagesschau 7:00 am, 3.30.2022
As an example, Beasley cited Yemen, where aid to eight million people has been cut in half. The war will have a global impact “beyond anything we’ve seen since World War II,” Beasley said. Millions of people are affected, as in Egypt and Lebanon, which receive much of their grain from Ukraine. Together, Ukraine and Russia produce 30% of the world’s wheat supply, 20% of the world’s corn supply and 75-80% of the sunflower oil. The World Food Program buys about half of its grain from Ukraine, according to its director.
Millions of people in need in Ukraine
Ukraine itself is also affected: the World Food Program is currently providing food for around one million people. In the next four weeks it should be 2.5 million, four million by the end of May and around six million by the end of June.
At the same time, the WFP director warned that the focus on Ukraine should not lead the international community to neglect Africa and the Middle East. This would lead, among other things, to massive immigration to Europe.
Serious accusations against Russia
At the UN Security Council session, Western countries raised massive accusations against Russia. “Vladimir Putin started this war. He caused this global food crisis,” US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman told the UN Security Council. French UN Ambassador Nicolas de Rivière said Putin’s war “increased the risk of famine”.
The UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Joyce Msuya, warned that the conflict in Ukraine “risks further worsening the situation of the world’s biggest humanitarian crises, such as Afghanistan, Yemen and the Horn of Africa”. “These countries are already struggling with food insecurity, the fragility of their economies, rising prices for food, fuel and fertilizer, which will hit the current season and the next hard,” the UN official warned.
Russia blames the West
Russian Ambassador Vasily Nebensia said: “The real reasons for the serious turmoil in world food markets are not due to Russia’s actions, but rather to the runaway hysteria of sanctions imposed on Moscow by the West.”
UN warns of famine as a result of war in Ukraine
Peter Mücke, ARD New York, March 30, 2022 7:45 am