WORLD NEWS: The Russia Ukraine war is creating the most acute global food crisis in decades. Millions are now facing starvation. Six months of fighting between the two farming powerhouses, Russia and Ukraine has plunged the global food system into disaster, leaving millions of people facing the reality of food shortages and possible starvation.
Soaring costs of living, combined with financial and climate-driven challenges and a fertilizer price hike is creating the most acute global food crisis in decades.
Politico reports “A special U.N. crisis task force is monitoring more than 60 countries that are struggling to pay for food imports. High energy prices and volatility in the food markets have put extra pressure on cash-strapped developing countries.
Drought is gripping the Horn of Africa, leaving some 26 million people facing food shortages in Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia over the next six months. More than 7 million livestock animals have already been wiped out. Across East Africa as a whole, some 50 million people are facing acute food insecurity.”
Jan Egeland, secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, tweeted: “An entirely preventable famine threatens the Horn of Africa region.” This is the “mega-crisis no one is talking about,” he said.
Politico further reports that “In Lebanon, also a large importer of Russian and Ukrainian wheat, has been running at 122 percent. According to the World Food Programme, a record high of 49 million people in 46 countries could fall into famine or “famine-like conditions” amid the global food crisis. The worst affected countries are Ethiopia, Nigeria, South Sudan, Afghanistan, Somalia and Yemen, where there are 750,000 people facing starvation and death, of which 400,000 alone are in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, where there is an ongoing civil war.”
“Domestic food production has dropped sharply over the past year, fuel shortages have made production, processing, transportation and retailing very difficult, and food and fuel imports are prohibitively expensive,” said Shalmali Guttal, executive director of Focus on the Global South, a think tank.
“Fertilizer price spikes and concerns about availability cast a shadow on future harvests, and risk keeping food prices high for a longer period,” says the IFPRI think tank.
A flurry of international political initiatives have sprung up to tackle the global food crisis, including a cash injection from France and Germany.
Source: (Photo Tasnim News Agency)
