The United States (US) aid Chief Samantha Power on Monday vowed to offer $1.18 billion to help avert famine in the Horn of Africa region and urged other countries to come forward and help fight a food crisis aggravated by Russia-Ukraine war, reported France 24.
The US official voiced alarm that the war and climate change were worsening hunger around the world, which is already reeling through the adverse effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Today we are confronting something even more devastating as not only are tens of millions more people facing that grave hunger, many of them are at risk of outright starvation,” she said at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Power said that the situation was especially dire in Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya, the so-called Horn of Africa, which is forecast to experience its fifth straight drought later this year.
She said that at least 1,103 children have died in the Horn of Africa and some seven million other children are severely malnourished. She also announced a visit to the Horn of Africa this weekend.
The US aid chief said the $1.18 billion aid would include emergency food, notably sorghum, a locally used grain more readily available than wheat, as well as a peanut-based supplement for malnourished children and veterinary services for dying livestock.
“Now we need others to do more, before a famine strikes, before millions more children find themselves on the knife’s edge,” she said.
Notably, global prices of food have increased due to the ongoing war in Ukraine, a leading wheat exporter, as Russian warships have blocked various ports.
Power criticized Russia’s sinister policies and also blamed China over its trade restrictions on fertilizer and hoarding of grain.
She said if China releases fertilizer or grain to the global market or World Food Programme, it would significantly relieve pressure on food and fertilizer prices. She also issued a tacit criticism of India, which has imposed its own export ban on wheat.
