Dozens of countries are at risk of protests, riots and political violence this year as food prices rise around the world, warns the head of the UN food aid branch.
Speaking in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, on Thursday, David Beasley, director of the United Nations World Food Program (WFP), said the world was facing a “terrible” shortage that could destabilize countries that depend on wheat exports from Ukraine and Russia.
“Even before the Ukraine crisis, we were facing an unprecedented global food crisis due to Covid and rising fuel prices,” Beasley said. “Then we thought it couldn’t get any worse, but this war has been devastating.”
Ukraine produces enough food every year to feed 400 million people. It produces 42% of the world’s sunflower oil, 16% of corn and 9% of wheat. Somalia depends on Ukraine and Russia for all its wheat imports, while Egypt gets 80% of its grain from both countries.
WFP gets 40% of its wheat for its emergency food aid programs in Ukraine and has been forced to halve rations in several countries as their costs increase.
Citing shipping price increases, fertilizers and fuel as key factors, due to Covid-19, the climate crisis and the war in Ukraine, Beasley said the number of people suffering from “chronic hunger” “had risen from 650 million to 810 million in the last five years.
Beasley added that the number of people suffering from “shock hunger” had increased from 80 million to 325 million during the same period. They are classified as living in levels of food insecurity crisis, a term he described as “going hungry and not knowing where your next meal is coming from.”
Beasley said that after the 2007-09 economic downturn, riots and other riots broke out in 48 countries around the world as commodity prices and inflation rose.
“The economic factors we have today are much worse than we saw 15 years ago,” he said, adding that failing to address the crisis would result in “hunger, destabilization of nations and mass migration.”
“We are already seeing riots in Sri Lanka and protests in Tunisia, Pakistan and Peru, and destabilization has taken place in places like Burkina Faso, Mali and Chad,” Beasley said. “That’s just a sign of things to come.”
Ukraine’s Ministry of Agriculture says more than 20 million tons of grain that would normally be exported are trapped in the country due to Russia’s blockade of its Black Sea ports.
European leaders, including French President Emmanuel Macron, have urged Russia to ease its blockade on Odessa, Ukraine’s main port, to allow grain exports.
In the long run, Beasley urged the world’s richest people to devote more of their wealth to tackling world hunger, while urging Vladimir Putin to open up Odessa.
“It’s a very, very scary time,” Beasley said. “We face hell on earth if we don’t respond immediately. The best we can do right now is end this damn war in Russia and Ukraine and open the port.”