Ukraine war: “Scary” food shortages – UN expert warns of “hell on earth”

Created: 06/18/2022, 17:34

By: Bettina Menzel

A Russian soldier walks through a wheat field outside of Melitopol in the Zaporizhia region (archive picture, June 14, 2022).

© IMAGO/Alexey Maishev/ SNA

The Ukraine war is exacerbating world food shortages.

This emerges from a recent report by the United Nations.

Addis Ababa - The escalating Ukraine conflict has resulted in rising food prices and food shortages worldwide.

In a speech in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa on Thursday (June 16), David Beasley, director of the United Nations World Food Program (WFP), warned of riots, protests and political violence in dozens of countries.

A look at Sri Lanka shows what the future could look like in other countries.

Ukraine war: UN warns of riots over food shortages

Ukraine and Russia are considered the breadbaskets of the world.

There are currently more than 20 million tons of wheat stored in Ukraine, but the country cannot ship the vital grain due to the Russian naval blockade in the Black Sea.

The wheat is in danger of rotting away – the urgently needed food is lacking elsewhere.

Around twelve percent of the wheat produced worldwide has so far come from the Ukraine.

The United Nations (UN) speak of an unprecedented and "scary" food shortage.

David Beasley, the head of the UN World Food Program, warned Thursday of unrest, political violence and protests in dozens of countries this year.

"Even before the Ukraine crisis, we were facing an unprecedented global food crisis due to Covid and fuel price increases," Beasley said.

"At the time we thought it couldn't get any worse," Beasley said, but that war was devastating.

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Ukraine War: These countries are particularly suffering from food shortages

Poor countries in particular depend on Ukrainian and Russian grain imports.

According to the United Nations, the 54 countries in Africa import around half of their wheat from Ukraine and Russia.

Somalia gets all of its wheat from the two countries, and Egypt imports around 80 percent of its needs from there.

But even when grain is available, food is often prohibitively expensive for poor countries.

Chad has already declared a state of emergency because of rising food prices.

Due to its high natural gas reserves, Russia is also one of the most important fertilizer suppliers in the world - the cessation of fertilizer exports also has an impact on future harvests.

The Horn of Africa is also experiencing one of the worst droughts in 40 years, with Ethiopia, Kenya, Sudan and Somalia being particularly hard hit.

Other key factors are the price increases for fuel and thus also for the transport of food.

According to WFP Director Beasley, 810 million people are currently suffering from chronic hunger, up from 650 million five years ago.

The number of people suffering from acute hunger increased from 80 to 325 million in the same period.

"You're walking towards starvation and you don't know where the next meal will come from," says Beasley.

According to the UN report, the situation is particularly bad in Ethiopia, Nigeria, South Sudan and Yemen, where the highest hunger warning level applies, as well as in Afghanistan and Somalia.

750,000 people are threatened with starvation.

The UN also sees bad forecasts for the Democratic Republic of Congo, Haiti, Sudan and Syria.

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War in Ukraine: Unrest, protests and political violence expected in numerous countries

According to the WFP boss, after the economic crisis of 2009 there was unrest in 48 countries around the world.

But economic factors today are much worse than they were 15 years ago, Beasley said.

If left unaddressed, this crisis could lead to "famine, destabilization of nations, and mass migration."

"We're already seeing unrest in Sri Lanka and protests in Tunisia, Pakistan and Peru, and we've seen destabilization in places like Burkina Faso, Mali and Chad," Beasley said.

"This is just a harbinger of what awaits us in the future."

A recent study by the credit insurer Allianz Trade comes to a similar conclusion.

Eleven countries that are net importers of food or rely on imports of food that has become scarce, such as grain, are particularly at risk, according to the Allianz study published on Tuesday.

The countries most at risk include Algeria, Tunisia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines, Turkey and Sri Lanka.

"If we don't feed the people, we feed the conflict," Allianz Trade summarizes the situation.

Ukraine war: UN expert warns of "hell on earth"

A look at Sri Lanka shows that unrest and protests are already a reality there.

The country is facing the worst economic crisis since independence from Great Britain in 1948, and there is a risk of a national hunger crisis.

People in Sri Lanka have been demonstrating for weeks because there is hardly any fuel, little electricity and medicine and food is extremely expensive.

Economic crisis in Sri Lanka: Not only food is expensive and scarce.

Fuel is also limited in the country.

In the picture, numerous people are waiting in front of gas stations in Colombo to buy petrol (archive picture, June 13, 2022).

© IMAGO/Pradeep Dambarage/ NurPhoto

The head of the UN World Food Program called on the world's richest people to use more of their wealth to fight global hunger.

In addition, Vladimir Putin should open the port of Odessa, according to Beasley's call.

"It's a very, very scary time," the WFP chief said of the global situation.

"We're going to face hell on earth if we don't react immediately.

The best we can do now is end this damn war in Russia and Ukraine and open the port.”.

However, experts, such as US Chief of Staff Mark Milley, consider military intervention to liberate the port of Odessa to be highly risky.