A United Nations’ ship is set to deliver Ukrainian wheat to Somalia. Ukraine’s infrastructure ministry confirmed the report and said the fifth vessel chartered by the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), NEW ISLAND, has arrived at Ukraine’s Black Sea port of Chornomorsk, ready to leave for Somalia.
Ukraine has already shipped wheat to Ethiopia, Yemen and Afghanistan under the programme. Ukrainian grain exports have slumped since the start of the war because its Black Sea ports – a key route for shipments – were closed off, driving up global food prices and prompting fears of shortages in Africa and the Middle East.
Global food crisis
Three Black Sea ports were unblocked at the end of July under a deal between Moscow and Kyiv, brokered by the United Nations and Turkey. A total of 5.8 million tonnes of agricultural products had so far left Ukrainian ports under the U.N.-brokered deal. That includes some 114,700 tonnes which left Ukraine’s Black Sea ports on eight ships on Sunday.
The effects of the global food crisis have hit some parts of the globe harder than others. Prone to drought and largely reliant on food imports, the Horn of Africa is reeling, and Somalia, in particular, is facing an acute crisis.
The UN warns “famine is at the door” of the 17 million-strong country, cautioning that several provinces in the southern Bay region could be in the throes of a deadly famine by the end of the year. Somalia’s current predicament is a cautionary tale for other East African states that have also been pummeled in recent decades by extreme weather events and social and political instability.
, NEW ISLAND, has arrived at Ukraine's Black Sea port of Chornomorsk, ready to leave for Somalia.){kind=link}