Marching towards starvation: UN warns of hell on earth if Ukraine war
goes on (Continuation)
Beasley added that the number of people experiencing "shock hunger"
had increased from 80 million to 325 million over the same period. They
are classified as living in crisis levels of food insecurity, a term he described as "marching towards starvation and you don’t know where your
next meal is coming from". Beasley said that after the economic crash of
2007-09, riots and other unrest erupted in 48 countries around the world
as commodity prices and inflation rose.
"The economic factors we have today are much worse than those we
saw 15 years ago," he said, adding that if the crisis was not addressed, it
would result in "famine, destabilisation of nations and mass migration".
"We are already seeing riots in Sri Lanka and protests in Tunisia, Pakistan
and Peru, and we’ve had destabilisation take place in places like Burkina
Faso, Mali, Chad," said Beasley. "This is only a sign of things to come."
Ukraine’s agriculture ministry says more than 20m tonnes of grain that
would normally be exported is trapped in the country because of Russia’s
blockade of its Black Sea ports. European leaders, including the French
president, Emmanuel Macron, have urged Russia to ease its blockade of
Odesa, Ukraine’s main port, to allow exports of grain.
In the long term, Beasley called on the world’s richest people to commit more of their wealth to tackling global hunger, while also urging Vladimir Putin to open up Odesa. "It is a very, very frightening time," said
Beasley. "We are facing hell on earth if we do not respond immediately.
The best thing we can do right now is end that damn war in Russia and
Ukraine and get the port open."
Adapted from: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2022/jun/17/united-nations-wfp-hell-on-earth-ukraine-war-russia.
Accessed on 07/10/2022