The French magazine Le Point (Le Point) said that the shortage of basic products in North Africa and the Middle East due to the repercussions of the Russian war on Ukraine makes many whisper the hypothesis of a "second version" of the Arab Spring, which will be sparked by the lack of food that authoritarian regimes in the region cannot contain.
The magazine stated - in a report - that Ukraine and Russia represent a third of the world's exports of wheat, barley, sunflower, ammonia and urea, which is rightly considered a "food weapon" with destructive effects close to the effects of nuclear weapons.
She pointed out that countries such as Libya, Egypt and Algeria depend on both sides of the current conflict to provide half of their wheat imports, which is an "addiction" to this region, which houses 4% of the world's population, while its needs amount to 35% of global grain imports, which constitutes a "hell equation." “It has been unresolved for more than 15 years.
Even worse - the magazine adds - that the projected shortage in 2022 risks turning into a "food nightmare" in 2023, as Ukraine will likely not harvest during the spring as men turn to the battlefronts and women flee from Russian bombs, and may not sow The country originally during the next season 2022-2023.
The Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, recently warned that the conflict sparked by Russia will hit "the poor more and sow the seeds of political instability and turmoil around the world," noting that the current crisis may cause a "hurricane of famine" that will come in several regions. from the planet.
Officials of the Maghreb countries - the newspaper adds - in Rabat and Algiers were keen to clarify that there are enough crops until the end of the year, while the Tunisian authorities indicated that there are stocks until the summer and that everything will depend on the hard and soft wheat crop this summer, but Arguments that only increase the bewilderment of the population of these countries in the face of the shortage of basic materials.
seeds of discontent
Le Point concludes that the seeds of discontent in the Maghreb in 2022 are still the same as they were during the outbreak of the Arab Spring in January 2011, while the fires of anger in the region have been badly extinguished and the flames continue to ignite due to the apparent failure of the systems emanating from the revolutions in all From Tunisia, Libya and Egypt.