Ukraine, Save the Children: “Truce immediately, there is already a shortage of food”

“To seek a peaceful solution to the conflict between Ukraine and Russia immediately, to stop the weapons in some way, to make sure that this conflict can be stopped”, at least “that there is a truce” also and above all “for the people who they still live in the besieged cities “and” then find a way to get this grain from Ukraine, from the ports of Odessa “. Because “there is already a shortage of food”, a “situation of food shortage or an increase in the cost of this food for which the most vulnerable population is unable to use it”. Speaking with Adnkronos is Filippo Ungaro, Director of Communication and Campaigns of Save the Children Italy, when there are two days left before the Mediterranean Ministerial Dialogue on the Food Crisis with the aim – according to a note from the Farnesina – to identify concrete measures to address the impact on food security in the Mediterranean basin, generated by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. “Those who risk the most are the poorest, the most vulnerable population and therefore the poorest, most vulnerable countries, which are somehow almost entirely dependent on the import of wheat from that area”, who “see their condition aggravate “observes, citing Lebanon,” the whole area of ​​the Horn of Africa “, then Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya in particular,” which are experiencing a very serious food crisis “, but also countries like Afghanistan, since last August again in the hands of the Taliban. “This food crisis – he observes – did not originate exclusively from the war between Ukraine and Russia, but has roots that are deeper and more ancient than this last conflict”, which “made things enormously worse”. And the reasons are to be found “in three factors that have been repeating themselves in recent decades, conflicts in general, the effects of the climate crisis and the effects of Covid”. “The three Cs” – conflicts, climate crisis and Covid – are elements that “have created a devastating effect and accentuated inequalities”. And the “Horn of Africa is in the second consecutive year of drought, Afghanistan has had the last year the second drought in four years “, while” Canada, which in turn exports wheat, is suffering the effects of a drought “, he points out, recalling that” today we have 193 million people in 53 countries who are in the state of severe food insecurity and we are experiencing the most serious food crisis in recent decades after years in which there had been improvements in terms of child malnutrition “. Instead today” there is already a shortage of food, especially everything that comes from wheat, from seed oil “. That is, he explains, “in many countries, prices are increasing dramatically”, and “in some cases they have even more than doubled”, and “the economic crisis that has more ancient roots means that wages have instead fallen profoundly” and there are “many people have lost their jobs” so “at the moment we are in a situation of food shortages or an increase in the cost of this food for which the most vulnerable population is unable to use it”. Ungaro recalls the story reported last March by Save the Children of her mother, desperate, who in Afghanistan that she was forced to sell her unborn child because she, due to the economic crisis, did not know how to feed the other children. “That case is probably the tip of the iceberg”, he comments, specifying that the Organization – which for over 100 years has been fighting to save children at risk and guarantee them a future – has become aware of “at least 30 other families with same problem in Afghanistan alone “. And, he continues, in this country tormented by decades of war, “in our clinics until August last year we had about 39 children a month who were treated for malnutrition”, while “now we receive more than 100 a month”. “Scary numbers” that “represent only part of the problem, because it is the part that we at Save the Children see.” absolutely stop finding solutions that are emergency “, says Ungaro. “It must focus on medium-term and long-term solutions by increasing the share of aid”, he continues, recalling that “the UN appeal for 2022 for the Horn of Africa as of May 20 had only been covered for 2 % of the total”. And “in 2011 a famine, again in the Horn of Africa, killed 250,000 people, half of whom were children under the age of five”, he underlines, denouncing a “total failure of politics, a clear will not to go investing where ‘there is a need to invest in aid “. “To put funds on humanitarian crises, but also to adopt structural solutions – he continues – to work on the resilience of communities trying to eliminate the great problem of inequalities, the poor distribution of income on a global level”. Also because “the scarcity of resources always leads to to tensions “and” when we are in such a situation, there is a serious risk of an outbreak of tensions, low intensity conflicts “and it is” a vicious circle that must be interrupted in some way “. In this sense, fears always focus on the Horn of Africa. In Somalia, he recalls, “more than 7 million people suffer from the food crisis”, and here – according to the Organization – the terrible drought, the worst in the last 40 years, has forced more than half a million people to flee their homes. , in search of food and water, for the past four months. Ungaro continues to rattle off the numbers: “In Ethiopia 7.2 million, in Kenya three and a half million, in Afghanistan there are almost 10 million children who are suffering from hunger at the moment” and in Lebanon, a country among other things hit by the most serious financial crisis in recent decades, “there are four million families who have fallen into total poverty.” and also on developed countries but on the weakest sections of the population “. And just look at Italy, he continues, with “the increase in inflation, the increase in the cost of some food” which “will have an effect on the poorest families who struggle to arrive at the end of the month or do not arrive at all. “. In view of the Mediterranean Ministerial Dialogue on the Food Crisis, Ungaro specifies that” we will insist on denouncing this situation that everyone is familiar with “. The appeal to the international community is to face “these problems with a more structured and non-emergency attitude”. And, he concludes, “we will ask Italy, as we have been doing for some time, to increase its public development aid”, to reach “at least” the target of 0.7% of GDP to be allocated “to major emergencies, in particular to this truly serious food crisis “, which does not derive” only from the war between Russia and Ukraine “and which comes after” ten years in which it seemed things would get better “.