Global food crisis may last for years
The UN warned Wednesday that a growing global food crisis could last years if it goes unchecked, as the World Bank announced an additional $12 billion in funding to mitigate its "devastating effects."
Food insecurity is soaring due to warming temperatures, the coronavirus pandemic and Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which has led to critical shortages of grains and fertiliser.
At a major United Nations meeting in New York on global food security, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the war "threatens to tip tens of millions of people over the edge into food insecurity."
He said what could follow would be "malnutrition, mass hunger and famine, in a crisis that could last for years," as he and others urged Russia to release Ukrainian grain exports.
"Let's be clear: there is no effective solution to the food crisis without reintegrating Ukraine's food production," Guterres said. "Russia must permit the safe and secure export of grain stored in Ukrainian ports."
Food insecurity had begun to spike even before Moscow, which was not invited to Wednesday's UN meet, invaded its neighbour on February 24.
The World Bank's announcement will bring total available funding for projects over the next 15 months to $30 billion.
The new funding will help boost food and fertiliser production, facilitate greater trade and support vulnerable households and producers, the World Bank said.
Ukraine used to export most of its goods through seaports but since Russia's invasion, it has been forced to export by train or via its small Danube River ports, reports Reuters.
Meanwhile, Moscow said yesterday that 1,730 Ukrainian fighters had surrendered in Mariupol over three days, including 771 in the past 24 hours, claiming a surrender on a far bigger scale than Kyiv has acknowledged since ordering its garrison to stand down.
But while Mariupol has fallen, President Volodymyr Zelensky said the wider invasion was an "absolute failure" as he marked "Vyshyvanka Day", an annual celebration of Ukrainian folk traditions.
G7 finance ministers were meeting in Germany to thrash out more cash support for Kyiv. The partners have to "assure Ukraine's solvency within the next days, few weeks", German Finance Minister Christian Lindner told the newspaper Die Welt.
In Kyiv, a 21-year-old Russian soldier asked a Ukrainian widow to forgive him for the murder of her husband, as a court met for a second hearing yesterday in the first war crimes trial arising from Russia's invasion.
The prosecution asked the judge to sentence Vadim Shishimarin to "life imprisonment" for the killing.
At the White House, US President Joe Biden yesterday offered his strong support to the leaders of Sweden and Finland to joining Nato. "They meet every Nato requirement and then some," Biden told reporters with the two leaders at his side.
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