Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is exacerbating famine in the Middle East and North Africa
The food crisis in the Middle East and North Africa has intensified due to Russian aggression against Ukraine, writes Human Rights Watch:
45% of Ukrainian exports are related to agricultural products. Most wheat production is concentrated in eastern Ukraine, where fighting is most intensive right now.
World food prices have risen by more than 30% since last year, and the war in Ukraine has further raised prices, which have reached their highest level since 1974, adjusted for inflation.
On March 9, Ukraine banned the export of grain and other food to prevent an internal humanitarian crisis. Even if these supply chain failures are fixed shortly, the problems are likely to persist. Moreover, warfare could seriously undermine future harvests, especially if the war continues until sowing in April.
The situation in the particular countries is as follows:
Lebanon: 80% of wheat came from Ukraine.
Egypt imports more than half of its oil from Ukraine. In addition, Egypt is the world’s largest importer of wheat, 30% of which comes from Ukraine.
Libya receives over 40% of wheat from Ukraine.
The authorities of northwestern Syria provide the region with wheat and flour purchased through Turkey, and the latter imports 90% of its grain from Ukraine.
Yemen imports at least 27% of its wheat from Ukraine.
Source – Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security
