US ambassador to UN accuses Russia of exacerbating food insecurity in Yemen and elsewhere by invading Ukraine
From EDITH M. LEDERER Associated Press
April 14, 2022, 10:39 p.m.
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UNTED NATIONS – The United States ambassador to the United Nations on Thursday accused Russia of making the precarious food situation in Yemen and elsewhere worse by invading Ukraine, calling it “just another grim example of the unbridled effect of unprovoked , Russia’s unjust and unscrupulous war on the world’s most vulnerable. “
Linda Thomas-Greenfield told the UN Security Council on war-torn Yemen that the World Food Program has identified the poorest nation in the Arab world as one of the countries hardest hit by rising wheat prices and a lack of imports. from Ukraine.
Russia’s Deputy Ambassador to the UN Dmitry Polyansky said: “The main factor for instability and the source of the problem today is not Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine, but the sanctions imposed on our country to cut off supplies from Russia and the supply chain. in addition to those supplies that these countries in the West need, in other words, energy.
“If you really want to help the world avoid a food crisis, you have to lift the sanctions that you have imposed, the sanctions of your choice indeed, and the poor countries will immediately feel the difference,” he said. “And if you’re not ready to do that, then don’t get involved in demagoguery and don’t fool everyone.”
The sharp exchange came a day after a UN task force warned that the war was threatening to devastate the economies of many developing countries, which now face even higher food and energy costs and increasingly difficult financial conditions.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres launched their report, saying: “Another 1.7 billion people – a third of whom are already living in poverty – are now severely exposed to food, energy and financial disruptions that increase poverty and hunger. “.
Thirty-six countries rely on Russia and Ukraine for more than half of wheat imports, including some of the world’s poorest countries, he said, and wheat and corn prices have risen 30 percent since the beginning of the year alone.
Rebecca Greenspan, secretary-general of the UN’s Trade Promotion and Development Agency, which co-ordinates the working group, said 1.7 billion people live in 107 countries that are “seriously exposed” to at least one dimension of the crisis – rising prices. food prices, rising energy prices and tightening financial conditions.
The working group said 69 of the countries with a population of 1.2 billion were facing a “perfect storm” and were severely or significantly exposed to the three crises. These include 25 countries in Africa, 25 in Asia and the Pacific and 19 in Latin America and the Caribbean.
The United Nations announced on Thursday that it was allocating $ 100 million from its emergency fund to seven hotspots, Yemen and six African countries – Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya, Sudan, South Sudan and Nigeria.
“Hundreds of thousands of children will sleep hungry every night while their parents worry about how to feed them,” said in a statement the head of the UN humanitarian service, Martin Griffiths. “A war in the middle of the world makes their prospects even worse. That distribution will save lives. “
UN spokesman Stefan Dujarric was asked about Polyanski’s comments and whether Guterres was worried that sanctions were raising food prices.
“I think it would be safe to say that there would be no sanctions if there was no conflict,” Dujarric replied.
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