Russia was accused on Tuesday in the UN of causing a “world food crisis” that could lead to a “famine” by attacking Ukraine and sparking a war between two grain-producing powers.
“The Russian President Vladimir Putin this war started. He created this global food crisis and he’s the one who can stop it,” Wendy Sherman, No. 2 U.S. diplomat, told the UN Security Council. United States.
In a session devoted to the humanitarian situation in Ukraine, Sherman said that “only Russia and President Putin bear responsibility for the war in Ukraine and the consequences of this war on global food security,” he added.
The French ambassador to the UN, Nicolas de Rivière, maintained that “Russia’s aggression against Ukraine increases the risk of a famine in the world”.
The UN assistant secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, Joyce Msuya, warned that the conflict “threatens to make things even worse in the biggest humanitarian crises on the planet such as those in AfghanistanYemen and the Horn of Africa”.
“These countries are already fighting against food insecurity, the fragility of their economies, the increase in the price of fuel, of fertilizers that will severely affect current and future campaigns,” he warned.
The director of World Food Program (WFP) David Beasley and Wendy Sherman recalled that Ukraine and Russia are among the “largest producers” of cereals. They represent “30% of world wheat exports, 20% of world corn and 75% of sunflower oil.”
Nearly “50% of the grain we buy comes from Ukraine and we fed 125 million people” before the war, Beasley said. He warned that the impact could be “devastating” for PAM operations.
The European Union (EU) announced on Friday an initiative to alleviate the food shortages caused by the war. The EU and the United States want a multilateral commitment against restrictions on exports of agricultural raw materials.
The risk of famine is feared due to the lack of cereals in the Middle East and North Africa. Egypt, TurkeyBangladesh or Nigeria, very populous countries, are the main importers of cereals from Russia and Ukraine.