DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) — The Nobel Peace Prize-winning director of the World Food Program says support from donors like the United States and Germany has allowed him to postpone, though not entirely prevent, famine in Somalia. but he stressed that “we are not out of this yet.”
WFP Executive Director David Beasley said countries in the Horn of Africa have faced an “unprecedented climate shock” from years of drought.and the UN agency hoped to announce the famine in Somalia before donors “stepped up magnificently.”
“And we have been able to, I don’t know if the correct word is ‘avoid’ famine, but we have definitely postponed it.”, he told The Associated Press at the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos., Switzerland, on Tuesday. “We have been lucky so far, given the climate crises inside Somalia. But we’re not out of this yet.”
But he warned that “we could still technically end up with a famine in Somalia” because “famine-like conditions” already exist.
“Once you officially declare a famine, well, it’s too late,” Beasley said.
Famine is the extreme lack of food and a significant death rate from starvation or malnutrition combined with diseases such as cholera. A formal declaration of famine means that data shows that more than a fifth of households have extreme food deprivation, more than 30% of children are severely malnourished and more than two people in 10,000 die every day.
Beasley, who announced plans to resign in April, has used his political experience as the former Republican governor of the US state of South Carolina to secure increased funding for Washington’s World Food Program under the Biden and Trump administrations.
The United States announced $411 million in additional funding for the Somalia crisis last month after a report by the UN and other experts said more than 8 million Somalis are severely food insecure due to drought and high food prices. foods.. Thousands have died.
When Beasley took office in 2017, some 80 million people around the world were on the brink of starvation and chronically hungry. Conflict, climate change and COVID-19 have caused that number to skyrocket to 350 million today due to economic devastation and supply chain disruptions.
“You think you can’t get any worse. So the barn of the world is closed: Ukraine,” Beasley said. “Now (the country has) the longest lines of bread in the world”, alluding to the war in Russia that has disrupted Ukraine’s food production and exports.
There is such a demand for food and fertilizers, of which Russia was one of the world’s leading suppliers.that nutrients for crops must reach the farmers who need them.
“I don’t care if you love or hate Russia, you have to have the food and the fertilizer,” Beasley said. “If we are not careful, we will have food shortages by the end of this year, or the price of food will be so high that there will be a destabilization of nations that will result in massive migration.”
Russia has complained that Western sanctions have created obstacles to the export of its food and fertilizer despite a UN-brokered war deal. allow grain and other agricultural supplies to flow across the Black Sea from Russia and the Ukraine. Although the sanctions do not target food exports, many shipping and insurance companies were reluctant to deal with Moscow, either refusing to do so or raising the price sharply.
“It will take several years to develop alternatives around the world. But in the meantime, we have to have that fertilizer and we have to do it in a way that Russia doesn’t blow up,” Beasley said. “And that’s extremely important.”
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AP writers Masha Macpherson and David Keyton in Davos, Switzerland contributed to this report.
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Follow AP coverage of the World Economic Forum meeting at https://apnews.com/hub/world-economic-forum and the food crisis at https://apnews.com/hub/food-crisis.
