A cereal boat for Africa: "the Horn of Africa urgently needs food aid"
The Brave Commander ship chartered by the UN in the Ukrainian port of Pivdenny during the loading of cereals, Sunday August 14, 2022. © VALENTYN OGIRENKO/REUTERS
Text by: RFI Follow
2 mins
The first UN-chartered humanitarian ship to carry Ukrainian grain left the port of Pivdenny in southern Ukraine on Tuesday with some 23,000 tons for Africa, according to Ukraine's infrastructure ministry.
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This supply is eagerly awaited in Ethiopia where drought is raging and where the conflict has displaced hundreds of thousands of people.
The WFP, the World Food Programme, estimates that 20 million people suffer from hunger.
“
These 23,000 tons will meet the needs of around 1.5 million people for a month.
It is therefore only a drop in the ocean when we see that more than 20 million people need food aid.
We will therefore have to continue to bring wheat and continue to meet the urgent food needs of the population in Ethiopia
”, explains Claire Nevill, spokesperson for the World Food Program in Ethiopia, joined by
Charlotte Cosset
of the Economy department.
Present at the port of Pivdenny on Sunday, the Ukrainian Minister of Infrastructure, Oleksandre Kubrakov had said he hoped the departure soon of “
two or three
” additional ships chartered by the UN.
For its part, the United States Agency for Development Assistance (USAID) said in a statement on Tuesday that it had provided 68 million dollars to the WFP for the purchase, transport and storage of 150,000 tons of Ukrainian wheat.
“
The WFP is confident that the cargo the Brave Commander is bringing is the first of what will now become regular deliveries from Ukraine as the Black Sea grain initiatives gain momentum.
Thus, this ship which has just left today should arrive in Djibouti in about 10 days, then reach Ethiopia by land”,
adds Claire Nevill at the microphone of RFI.
►
To read: Ukraine: a first UN humanitarian ship, loaded with wheat, ready to leave for Ethiopia
Significant needs in the Horn of Africa
“
We will continue to buy grain on the world market at the lowest price available.
And we are also looking at options to source grain from Ukraine under this agreement.
So this is a positive development, but it will take several months for supply chains to recover from the disruption caused by the conflict in Ukraine.
And we look forward to more regular shipments arriving in the region, it is really necessary
,” continues the spokesperson for the World Food Program in Ethiopia, who also highlights the pressing needs of the region.
“
The Horn of Africa is in dire need of food aid at the moment due to the drought and it will obviously take time to restore supply chains and for the situation to stabilize after such an interruption.
But we are hopeful that this is a positive development.
We need deliveries to continue to keep pace with needs.
»
►
To read:
Drought in Ethiopia: nearly 6 million people need food aid
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