UN warns of “unprecedented crisis” in Africa over rising food prices.
The United Nations has warned that a sharp rise in food and fuel prices in South Africa due to the Ukraine war has exposed the continent to an unprecedented crisis.
The United Nations warned on Thursday that the African continent was facing an “unprecedented crisis” as food and fuel prices soared as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The Al-Jazeera news website reported that the conflict in Ukraine and Western sanctions against Moscow had disrupted the supply of wheat, chemical fertilizers and other goods, and that this was a problem for Africa, which was already struggling as a result of climate change and the Corona epidemic. He was struggling to create additional difficulties.
“This is an unprecedented crisis for the African continent,” Raymond Gilpin, chief economist at the United Nations Development Program in Africa, said on Friday. “We are witnessing a decline in the continent’s GDP.”
Speaking at a news conference in Geneva, Gilpin said the sharp rise in inflation was particularly troubling for countries such as South Africa, Zimbabwe and Sierra Leone.
Many African countries are heavily dependent on imports of food and chemical fertilizers from Russia and Ukraine. The two countries, which have been at war since February this year, are major exporters of wheat, cereals, canola and sunflower oil. In some African countries, up to 80 percent of wheat needs are met through imports from Russia and Ukraine.
Russia ordered a military strike on Ukraine on February 24. This development came days after Moscow formally recognized the independence of the Donetsk and Luhansk republics in eastern Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin has said his military operation is aimed at “demilitarizing Ukraine” and “de-Naziizing” the country.
Russia has also said that Ukraine has not fulfilled its obligations under the Minsk agreements reached in 2014 and 2015 to resolve the dispute between separatists and Kiev.
