careless pic can cost lives.
While you watch and cheer Putin your people are starving :
Somalia faces grim humanitarian catastrophe
The war in Ukraine is worsening food insecurity in East Africa after a devastating locust invasion, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the ongoing drought. In Somalia alone, 6 million people are food insecure.
The war in Ukraine is worsening food insecurity in East Africa after a devastating locust invasion, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the ongoing drought. In Somalia alone, 6 million people are food insecure.
www.dw.com
‘Marching towards starvation’: UN warns of hell on earth if Ukraine war goes on
Unprecedented food shortages could spark riots in dozens of countries as Black Sea blockade adds to pressures, says WFP chief
Unprecedented food shortages could spark riots in dozens of countries as Black Sea blockade adds to pressures, says WFP chief
www.theguardian.com
'Widen gaze from Ukraine' to avert famine in Somalia, U.N. agency warns
The world must “widen its gaze from the war in Ukraine” to prevent Somalia sliding into famine, the United Nations’ children’s agency said on Tuesday, warning only a third of the $250 million needed to stave off catastrophe had so far been raised.
Four consecutive rainy seasons have failed in the Horn of Africa – the worst drought spell in more than 40 years – and a fifth in October-December also looks likely to do so.
Drought has combined with a global rise in food and fuel prices, pushed up by the war in Ukraine, to hit millions across the continent, putting food staples out of reach for poor families and killing crops and livestock.
“If the world does not widen its gaze from the war in Ukraine and act immediately, an explosion of child death is about to happen in the Horn of Africa,” Rania Dagash, deputy regional director of UNICEF, told a briefing.
Somalia has 386,000 children in urgent need of treatment for life-threatening malnutrition, numbers that are already higher than the 340,000 children who needed treatment in 2011, a year when famine killed hundreds of thousands of people, she said.
Donor funding has been generous but falls short of the $250 million needed, Dagash said.
“We have just a third of what we need this year. Our call to the international community, led by the G7 who will be meeting in Germany in a few weeks, needs to commit new, additional funding to save lives,” she said.
Etienne Peterschmitt, Representative in Somalia for the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), another U.N. agency, said millions were malnourished and 213,000 people were in the most critical category, facing extreme lack of food.
Drought had dried up pastures and pushed up the price of food and water, he said. Around 3 million livestock have died since last year due to drought and disease. The southern Bay region was of particular concern.
Somalia is “on the brink of devastating and widespread hunger, starvation and death”, he said, adding it was a “perfect storm for famine if action is not taken now”.
Malnutrition made children more vulnerable to disease and forced destitute families to travel long distances on foot for treatment, Dagash said, citing an example of a pregnant woman walking 120 km (75 miles) for treatment for her 1-year-old twin boys.
“I’ve heard of children being buried along the roadside as their families make the desperate long trek to seek help.”
LONDON - The world must "widen
www.euronews.com
Unprecedented food shortages could spark riots in dozens of countries as Black Sea blockade adds to pressures, says WFP chief
www.theguardian.com
Global development
‘Marching towards starvation’: UN warns of hell on earth if Ukraine war goes on
Unprecedented food shortages could spark riots in dozens of countries as Black Sea blockade adds to pressures, says WFP chief
Sri Lankans bang pans in a protest in Colombo at the economic crisis. Food, fuel and medicine have been in short supply for months. Photograph: Chamila Karunarathne/EPA
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Fred Harter in Addis Ababa
Fri 17 Jun 2022 09.59 EDT
Dozens of countries risk protests, riots and political violence this year as food prices surge around the world, the head of the food-aid branch of the
United Nations has warned.
Speaking in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa, on Thursday, David Beasley, director of the UN World Food Programme (WFP), said the world faced “frightening” shortages that could destabilise countries that depend on wheat exports from
Ukraine and Russia.
“Even before the Ukraine crisis, we were facing an unprecedented global food crisis because of Covid and fuel price increases,” said Beasley. “Then, we thought it couldn’t get any worse, but this war has been devastating.”
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Ukraine grows enough food every year to feed 400 million people. It produces 42% of the world’s sunflower oil, 16% of its maize and 9% of its wheat.
Somalia relies on Ukraine and Russia for all of its wheat imports, while Egypt gets 80% of its grain from the two countries.
The WFP sources 40% of the wheat for its emergency food-relief programmes from Ukraine and, after its operating costs rose by $70m (£58m) a month, it has been forced to halve rations in several countries.
Citing increases in the price of shipping, fertiliser and fuel as key factors – due to Covid-19, the climate crisis and the Ukraine war – Beasley said the number of people suffering from “chronic hunger” had risen from 650 million to 810 million in the past five years.
Beasley added that the number of people experiencing “shock hunger” had increased from 80 million to 325 million over the same period. They are classified as living in crisis levels of food insecurity, a term he described as “marching towards starvation and you don’t know where your next meal is coming from”.
Beasley said that after the economic crash of 2007-09, riots and other unrest erupted in 48 countries around the world as commodity prices and inflation rose.
Millions at risk in South Sudan as Ukraine war forces slashing of aid
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“The economic factors we have today are much worse than those we saw 15 years ago,” he said, adding that if the crisis was not addressed, it would result in “famine, destabilisation of nations and mass migration”.
“We are already seeing riots in Sri Lanka and protests in Tunisia, Pakistan and Peru, and we’ve had destabilisation take place in places like Burkina Faso, Mali, Chad,” said Beasley. “This is only a sign of things to come.”
Ukraine’s agriculture ministry says more than 20m tonnes of grain that would normally be exported is trapped in the country because of Russia’s blockade of its Black Sea ports.
European leaders, including the French president, Emmanuel Macron, have urged Russia to ease its blockade of Odesa, Ukraine’s main port, to allow exports of grain.
In the long term, Beasley called on the world’s richest people to commit more of their wealth to tackling global hunger, while also urging Vladimir Putin to open up Odesa.
“It is a very, very frightening time,” said Beasley. “We are facing hell on earth if we do not respond immediately. The best thing we can do right now is end that damn war in Russia and Ukraine and get the port open.”
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