The consequences of the war in Ukraine are triggering a “domino effect” with “catastrophic” consequences in all those countries of North Africa and the Middle East, from Tunisia to Yemen, which depend on what used to be the “granary of the world” for imports. of wheat and corn. This is the alarm raised by Emanuela Cutelli, communications manager for Italy of the World Food Program (Wfp), who in an interview with time.news highlights the difficulties of food supply in Ukraine and the impact of the conflict “on the communities most vulnerable “.
“The WFP is extremely concerned about the food situation and the food supplies available in Ukraine to the point that we are mobilizing food supplies to provide assistance to approximately 3.1 million Ukrainians inside the country”, Cutelli said, explaining that the organization of which he is part is working “to put in place systems capable of replacing commercial supply chains that currently no longer work”. This is a “gigantic task”, he says, noting that the WFP has already distributed bread to 140,000 people in Kharkhiv and high-energy biscuits to 30,000 people in Kiev for five days.
The challenge, he points out, is now to pre-position food in fear that many areas will become inaccessible as is happening in Mariupol: “Over 1,200 tons of food, enough for over 62 thousand people for a month, are in transit to Dnipro, Kiev, Odessa and Chernivtsi “, in view of a possible further escalation of the conflict. “We collaborate with local partners, but it is an operation that we are building from scratch”, he continues, announcing that WFP is trying to establish 3 operational bases in Ukraine, one of which in Lviv, to improve its intervention capacities.
Cutelli pointed out to the time.news how Ukraine was “the granary of the world”, which “fed millions of people, especially in North Africa and the Middle East” and how the stop to exports “is a catastrophe after a catastrophe”, as already before the outbreak of the conflict “there were unprecedented levels of hunger”.
“The conflict is worsening an already devastating situation for millions of people”, he stresses, recalling that Ukraine and Russia together guaranteed 30% of world grain exports, 20% of corn exports and up to 76% of those of seed oil.
According to the communication manager for Italy, the war in Ukraine was grafted onto a “catastrophic” situation from the point of view of food security caused by four factors: the impact of conflicts, climate change, Covid-19 and high food costs, which were already “at their highest levels in 10 years”.
The effects are already seen in countries such as Lebanon, which imports over 50% of its wheat and where President Michel Aoun has indicated the problem of food security as a priority. But there are many other states in difficulty, says Cutelli, such as Yemen, which imports 22% of its needs from Ukraine and where 17.4 million people are in need of food assistance. Or Syria, where the WFP estimates that over half of the population is in acute food insecurity.
But Tunisia and Afghanistan are also in serious conditions and these ‘bread crises’ can trigger “destabilization and strong social tensions”, with consequences for the political stability of these countries.
“The impact of the conflict has increased the costs of WFP in providing assistance by 71 million dollars a month – concludes Cutelli at time.news – We provide assistance to 137 million people in over 80 countries, with a total cost of 18.9 billions of dollars, but we have a 60% funding gap. “