23,000 tonnes of Ukrainian wheat were received this Tuesday 30 August 2022 at the port of Djibouti. According to UN information, the ship Brave Commander left the Ukrainian port of Pivdenny on 16 August. The cereals are to be used to boost food security in famine-stricken Ethiopia.
Read also: Africa: Some 23,000 tonnes of Ukrainian cereals to Ethiopia to fight famine
After two weeks at sea, the ship Brave Commander reached the port of Djibouti on Tuesday 30 August 2022. On board was 23,000 tonnes of wheat from Ukraine. The information is confirmed by Mike Dunford, Regional Director of the World Food Program. From the port of Djibouti, the cereals will then be transported to Ethiopia. In addition to the humanitarian crisis resulting from the clashes between the TPLF rebels and the federal forces, this country in the Horn of Africa is facing drought in its southern and south-eastern parts.
23,000 tonnes of wheat to cover the needs of the population while waiting for other aid.
According to information provided by the Regional Director of the World Food Program, the 23,000 tonnes of cereal contained in the Brave Commander will cover the food needs of 1.5 million people for a month in Ethiopia. “So this has a very important impact on those people who currently have nothing. And now WFP will be able to provide for them,” said the World Food Program Regional Director.
Hope is slowly returning after the opening of a corridor in the Black Sea.
Since the start of the war between Ukraine and Russia, the world’s largest grain exporters, commodity prices have soared on the market. The UN negotiations for the opening of an export corridor in the Black Sea have really helped to contain this increase.
“We have already seen a 15% reduction in world wheat prices since the Black Sea Initiative began. What we want is to get more food flowing. We need, from the WFP’s point of view, millions of tonnes in this region. In Ethiopia alone, three-quarters of everything we used to distribute came from Ukraine and Russia,” said Mike Dunford, WFP’s Regional Director for Eastern Africa.
Some 22 million people are at risk of starvation across the Horn of Africa, including in Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya.
